White House Secretary of State Mark Meadows said in an interview on Sunday that U.S. Postal Service mail service machines will not be taken offline between today and Election Day – a statement in line with reports that the Postal Service will release 10 percent of its machines this year under a new policy.
The way in which Meadows made the claim – by denying that they were removed in the first place, and making dubious claims in response to an air check by CNN’s Jake Tapper – left it unclear if he was in fact reversing the discharge duty of machines.
Some postal workers say the dismissal of the machines – some of which would be post-in-ballots – could limit the Post Office’s ability to handle an unusual turnout of absent votes in the November elections, and it could contribute to the possibility of millions of voters disenfranchised by an overwhelming postal system.
On CNN State of the Union, Meadows first told Tapper that sorting machines taken offline “did not happen” and that claims to the contrary were simply the product of Democrats trying to “sting fear” with a “political narrative.”
When Tapper asked if Meadows denied that sorting machines were taken offline and were recently removed, Meadows initially answered by deciphering the question, “I say sorting machines between now and the election will not be taken offline,” Meadows said.
Meadows went on to say that “the deduction” of postal machines was initiated by the former postmaster general, who was appointed by President Barack Obama – and seems to suggest that some machines actually the go offline in the past, but under a policy envisioned by the Trump administration.
When Tapper continued to ask why sorting machines were recently taken offline under new rules, Meadows said: ‘Come and share with your manufacturer where exactly such sorting machines were taken offline. Let them whistle in your ear, because what I’m telling you is that you pick up on a story that is not based on facts. ”
Later in the episode, after being updated by a producer, Tapper complied with Meadows’ request: He quoted Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri , who told CNN that postal service has already acquired four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas, that is earlier this year – under this new postmaster general. ”
Meadows denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Masters’ Day have been made more than once.
But reports from NBC News, CNN, and the Washington Post indicate that 671 machines will be taken offline under a new policy. NBC reports that, according to internal documents from the Postal Services it has received, the new postmaster general appointed by Trump in May, Louis DeJoy, is the one responsible for the dismissal initiative. And postal workers say the process of taking machines out of this service under this initiative began in June.
A spokeswoman for the postal service told NBC News that the dismissal was due to “normal business adjustments!” and that equipment was adjusted due to a decrease in the volume of e-mail and an increase in the volume of packets.
But that policy has worried some postal workers about their ability to process post-in polls, which are expected to rise to unusual levels this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Washington Post reports that the American Postal Workers Union has filed a grievance claiming that the dismissal of the machines – which are “concentrated in high-density areas” – could hinder the processing of election mail.
Experts on voting behavior have said that before the pandemic, an estimated 25 percent of voters would be expected to throw their ballots by mail; she now estimates that 60 percent or more will try to vote by mail because the pandemic discourages individuals from voting.
If Meadows claims that a new machine removal initiative does not exist when in fact it does, then his promise that new ones will not be taken offline is, at best, dubious. How can the White House restore a policy that it claims does not exist?
There are currently many concerns about the Postal Service
Experts say the Postal Service is in dire financial straits, already struggling with serious delays, and that new austerity policies imposed by DeJoy are likely to exacerbate the problem.
In July, the U.S. Postal Service warned 46 states and Washington, DC, that tens of millions of voters could be effectively fired because their postal ballots might not be processed quickly enough for the November election – even if voters violated all election rules. follow their state.
The agency told six states and DC that a narrow set of their voters could experience delayed voting, according to the Washington Post. But for the remaining 40 states, the warning is far too serious: They were told that “long-standing deadlines for requesting, returning or counting votes were ‘incongruous’ with e-mail service and that voters who send ballot papers near these deadlines can be disenfranchised, ”reports the Post.
That increased warning applies to 186 million potential voters scattered across blue states, red states and battlefield states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
CNN reported on Saturday that the Postal Service’s internal watchdog is monitoring some of DeJoy’s new policies. (It is also investigating its compliance with federal ethics rules due to the recent revelation of its multimillion-dollar stake in its former company, XPO Logistics, a postal service contractor that has raised issues of conflict-of-interest.)
Many of these issues could be resolved by emergency funds that the Postal Service has pleaded guilty to, and which House Democrats included in the coronavirus bill they passed in May.
During his interview on CNN, Meadows said Trump is open to injecting emergency funds into the Postal Service if he can come to an honest deal with Democrats. But that contradicts Trump’s statement on Thursday that he is opposed to offering additional funding to the Postal Service because he does not want everyone to be able to vote by mail.
Democrats “want three-and-a-half billion dollars for something that will turn out to be fraudulent, that is election money, in principle … [And] they want $ 25 billion – billion – for the Post Office, ”Trump said.
“Now they need that money to run the post office so it can take all those millions and millions of votes,” Trump continued. “By the way, these are just two items, but if they do not get those two items, it means you can not have universal mail-in-voice.”
Trump has repeatedly sought to delegitimize the reliability of mail-in sending, describing it as acutely vulnerable to fraud – without presenting evidence and despite the consensus among voting experts that it is safe if it is properly funded.
When CNN’s Tapper pointed out to Meadows on Sunday that ‘there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud,’ Meadows said: ‘There is no evidence that this is either. That’s the definition of fraud, Jake. ”
