A former top official at the US Postal Service (USPS) has warned that recent changes at the agency, now led by a Trump ally, could “decipher” voters because they were only implemented months in advance. an election in which a record number of Americans are expected to vote by mail.
Amid reports of major mail delays, said Ronald Stroman, who resigned earlier this year as the second in command at USPS, said he was concerned about the speed and timing of changes that appear to be implemented after Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster -general, took office in June. USPS is facing a financial crisis and every postmaster general is interested in cost savings and efficiency, Stroman said, but the question was how to balance these changes with the needs of the public.
“The concern is not only that you are doing this in a pandemic, but a few months before an election with enormous consequences,” said Stroman, now a senior fellow at the Democracy Fund. ‘If you can not fix the ship, if you can not correct it fast enough, the consequence is not just, OK, people do not get e-mail, it is that your people unfranchise.
“Making these changes close to an election is a high risk statement,” he added.
Some delays this year were because USPS workers were unable to work during the Covid-19 pandemic. But fears grew after DeJoy, a major Trump donor with no prior USPS experience, took over the agency. Shortly after joining the postal service, the Washington Post and other news organizations received internal documents stating that the agency prohibits overtime and that postal workers should leave posts at processing plants if it causes them to leave late.
Mark Jamison, a former North Carolina postmaster who retired from the agency in 2012, said the idea of leaving first-class mail – which includes letters with a regular stamp – was anathema to USPS culture. . “The rule has always been that you delete every piece of first-class mail every day, period from a plant,” he said. “There has never been a time, in the 30 years that I have worked for the post office, there has never been a time when you restrict first class mail.”
Residents of Philadelphia have reported going up three weeks without mail and mail workers said the Philadelphia Inquirer post stepped up in local offices. Veterans and employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs have reported postal delays in enforcing regulations. In Minneapolis, USPS stopped temporary mail delivery to a high-rise building, home to many low-income residents and immigrants, over concerns about the spread of Covid-19. In April, some Wisconsin residents reported that they never received the ballot papers they asked for in a statewide election. Democrats in Congress have opened an investigation into the delays and asked the USPS Inspector General to investigate the matter as well.
I mean, come on, we’re having a pandemic, you’re socially distancing, people are calling in sick, are you going to cut overtime now? That just doesn’t make sense, “Jamison said.” It’s unconscious what they’re doing. “
David Partenheimer, a USPS spokesman, said there was no blanket ban on overtime. The agency declined to say whether employees were instructed to leave emails behind.
There are concerns that the delays could last into November and exempt many Americans. The majority of U.S. states require absentee ballots to arrive on election day, regardless of when the voter puts them in the mail, to be counted. USPS has long advised voters to post their ballots a week before Election Day to ensure they arrive on time to count (some states allow voters to request a ballot until days before the election). At least 65,000 votes were rejected in primary this year because they came too late, according to NPR.
USPS denies delaying the mail and DeJoy said the agency had ‘ample capacity’ to deliver emails on time. “While I certainly have a good relationship with the President of the United States, the idea that I would ever make decisions about the Postal Service in the direction of the President, or with anyone else in the administration, is completely off- base, “he said on Friday at a meeting of the USPS board.
There is also some concern about the cost that various states will have to pay to send votes. Some states send ballot papers as marketing mail, which is less expensive than first class mail and has an expected delivery time of three to 10 days (first class mail is typically delivered faster). In the past, USPS has almost moved the official polling station, despite the service class, but in recent weeks, the agency has signaled that the polling station will not speed up and election officials will get the service they are paying for.
Some Democrats have suggested that this amounts to a USPS threat to increase postage on post-in-votes, a characterization that strongly discourages USPS.
“There is currently no variation in changes to the rates and classes of mail affecting ballot papers,” said Martha Johnson, a USPS spokeswoman in a statement. “The baseless claim that we intend to raise prices ahead of the upcoming presidential election to limit the vote by post is completely unfounded, and appalling. The Postmaster General and the organization he leads are fully committed to fulfilling our role in the election process. ”
While Stroman agreed that the agency had the capacity to handle the volume of post-in voting, he said DeJoy should inevitably make it clear that post-in voting should be consistently delivered in accordance with USPS delivery standards and be transparent on how the agency would address apparent delays ahead of the November elections.
“I want him to say to the staff, ‘This is a priority for me, and I expect 100% of the votes we have processed and delivered in accordance with our service standards,'” he said. to create would be important to send a signal to the workforce [that] that is your expectation and that you will set the resources to make this happen. ”
Art Sackler, manager of the coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a sector group representing heavy posters including Amazon and eBay, said he had heard a ‘mixed bag’ of companies in recent weeks, some of which have reported delays . He wondered why the agency was now moving forward with the changes.
“If there is the business side of this takeaway, it would be that the timing of this is problematic,” he said. “In the teeth of a nationwide emergency uprising, the vote comes up in November, well sooner, then its peak season comes up afterwards. Many people say: why not do this in January? ”
