Pelosi calls back House over Postal Service upheaval / EXPLAINER: Why is the US Postal Service's role in November's election under scrutiny?

 

CONGRESS

Pelosi calls back House over Postal Service upheaval

 

A vote is expected Saturday to bar Trump overhaul plan for USPS.

 

By JOHN BRESNAHAN, SARAH FERRIS and HEATHER CAYGLE

08/16/2020 06:43 PM EDT

Updated: 08/16/2020 08:43 PM EDT

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/16/pelosi-house-vacation-postal-service-396627

 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders will summon the House back in session this coming week to confront President Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the U.S. Postal Service, she announced Sunday night.

 

The House is expected to vote as early as Saturday, Aug. 22, on a proposal to block the Trump administration’s plan for overhauling the Postal Service. This is weeks earlier than Pelosi and the House Democratic leaders had originally planned to return to Washington. But the revised House schedule comes amid a national uproar over a crisis within the Postal Service ahead of a national election that will see an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots.

 

Democrats have grown increasingly alarmed that Trump is using the coronavirus pandemic to force service cutbacks at USPS ahead of Nov. 3. Democrats allege Trump’s appointee to lead the Postal Service, Louis DeJoy, has overseen substantial operational changes to the agency that has led to backlogs and service interruptions — an immense concern as millions of Americans prepare to receive and return their ballots through the mail.

 

Trump has long alleged, without evidence, that mail-in voting perpetuates election fraud.

 

“Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters,” Pelosi said in a letter to fellow House Democrats on Sunday.

 

"That is why I am calling upon the House to return to session later this week to vote on Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman [Carolyn] Maloney’s 'Delivering for America Act,' which prohibits the Postal Service from implementing any changes to operations or level of service it had in place on January 1, 2020."

 

Pelosi said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) would formally announce the new schedule on a call with members set for Monday. The next set of House votes had orignally been slated for the week of Sept. 14 before this latest uproar.

 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), a Trump ally, claimed Democrats are trying to focus on the Postal Service's problems because they weren't able to reach a deal with the White House over a new coronavirus relief package.

 

“Republicans are 100 percent committed to ensuring a fair and accurate election. Whether Americans choose to vote in-person — which Doctor Fauci has stated will be safe — or vote absentee, I have complete confidence in the integrity of our electoral process," McCarthy said in a statement. "House Democrats are simply attempting to distract from the fact their ridiculous demands are dragging down the American recovery and adding more uncertainty to people’s livelihoods.”

 

But House Democrats signaled this weekend that they will mount aggressive oversight of DeJoy, a Trump donor and loyalist, and have demanded the postmaster general appear for an emergency committee hearing on Monday, Aug. 24.

 

Pelosi and Maloney announced the hearing this weekend, warning that the agency’s changes “are slowing the mail and jeopardizing the integrity of the election.” Democrats in both the House and Senate had already demanded a slew of documents from DeJoy and his top staff, seeking details on why DeJoy had cracked down on overtime hours, restricted certain deliveries and offered conflicting information on the timeline for mail-in ballots.

 

Pelosi and her leadership team held an emergency call Saturday to discuss several options to deal with the turmoil at the Postal Service as several rank-and-file Democrats from progressives to moderates publicly demanded action.

 

Some Democrats, including moderate Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.), said DeJoy should be arrested if he ignores a congressional subpoena to testify. Democratic leaders would not pursue that option, but Cooper’s suggestion, which was echoed by other Democrats, signals how angry lawmakers are about what’s unfolding at the Postal Service.

 

The House is expected to vote on a modified version of a bill Maloney introduced last week that would block many of the major organizational changes DeJoy is seeking before the election.

 

Some top Democrats on the call this weekend also argued for having the House take additional action on other measures tied to the coronavirus pandemic, including expired federal unemployment benefits. The House could vote on other economic proposals during its emergency session, but nothing has been officially decided, according to multiple Democratic aides.

 

The House passed a major coronavirus relief bill in May that included a $25 billion infusion for the Postal Service and an additional $3.6 billion in election security funding.

 

Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the White House had agreed to provide $10 billion in Postal Service funding during coronavirus talks earlier this month before the negotiations fell apart.

 

Schumer on Sunday called on Senate GOP leaders to bring back their members, as well, to vote on the House’s bill to “undo the extensive damage Mr. DeJoy has done at the Postal Service.”

The fight to vote

US Postal Service

Why is the US Postal Service's role in November's election under scrutiny?

 

The coronavirus pandemic means up to 50% of votes could be cast by mail but will the USPS be able to cope?

 

Sam Levine in New York

Fri 14 Aug 2020 22.43 BSTLast modified on Fri 14 Aug 2020 22.51 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/14/us-postal-service-election-q-and-a

 

 An individual deposits letters into a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) collection mailbox in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., August 14, 2020. REUTERS/Rachel Wisniewski Photograph: Rachel Wisniewski/Reuters

The United States Postal Service has emerged as a central issue in November’s hotly contested election where Democrat Joe Biden is seeking to prevent Republican Donald Trump from winning a second term. Here is why:

 

Why is there so much attention around the USPS and America’s 2020 election?

 

An unprecedented number of Americans are expected to vote by mail this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the last few months, states across the US have seen record numbers of Americans request ballots and submit votes by mail in primary and other elections. Mail-in ballots may account for 50% of all of the votes cast this fall, according to an estimate by Michael McDonald, a University of Florida professor who closely tracks voter turnout. That would be a huge increase from 2016 and 2018, when about a quarter of votes came through the mail.

 

That surge means the USPS is going to play a much bigger role in facilitating an American presidential election than ever before. The agency will be responsible for transporting ballots between election officials and voters. Many states require ballots to arrive at election offices by the close of the polls on election day. Others allow ballot postmarked on or before election that arrive within a specified period. There’s concern over whether the USPS, which is already facing a severe financial crisis, will be able get ballots to voters and return them to election offices in time to have them counted.

 

So what exactly is Trump doing to the USPS?

 

Over the last few months there have been reports of severe mail delays across the US. In Philadelphia, for example, some residents told the Philadelphia Inquirer they had gone weeks without receiving mail. Concerns over those delays were heightened in early June when Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor and Trump ally, took over as postmaster general, the top role at the USPS.

 

In July, the Washington Post and other news organizations reported the agency was banning overtime and instructing postal workers to leave the mail behind if it delayed them on their routes. There are also reports of the USPS removing mail sorting machines from facilities, which could lead to a further slowdown.

 

Critics suggest Trump and DeJoy are deliberately slowing the mail to make it more difficult to vote by mail. DeJoy has strongly denied any political interference. But on Thursday, Trump openly admitted he was blocking $25bn in proposed aid to the post office because he wanted to make it harder to vote by mail.

 

Why is Trump doing this?

 

The president is trailing Joe Biden in the polls and his focus on the USPS is widely seen as an attempt to sow chaos and to make it less likely people will have their votes counted in November. Vote-by-mail does not benefit one party over the other, but Trump has shown an instinctive belief that the fewer people who vote, the better his re-election chances will be.

 

One of the top reasons ballots go uncounted is because they arrive at election offices past the deadline to be counted. Minorities, young people, and first-time voters are all disproportionately more likely to have their votes rejected.

 

Will the USPS be able to survive Trump’s attacks for November?

 

The post office says it has the capacity to deliver ballots this fall and says it will do so. The agency has longstanding guidance that voters should put their ballots in the mail before election day in order to have the best chance of having them counted. But many states allow voters to request a ballot within the seven days before an election, something USPS warned many states in recent weeks could mean voters not having their ballots counted.

 

Does a mail-in vote have to be returned by the USPS?

 

Many election officials are exploring setting up official drop boxes around their jurisdictions so that voters can return their ballots without having to return them in the mail. But in Pennsylvania the Trump campaign sued to block the use of drop boxes for the election, baselessly saying they will facilitate fraud.

 

What can I do to help ensure there isn’t a USPS crisis in November?

 

Experts are encouraging Americans to submit their requests for their November ballots now so that postal officials are less overwhelmed later this year and there isn’t a crunch to get them back in time. Voters should also look up the deadline for requesting and submitting an absentee ballot so they can do so well in advance of November.