Donald Trump has launched a war against mail-in voting even though that’s how the president casts his ballots, and now the U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is under fire for sweeping changes to the Postal Service. DeJoy is testifying now in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee amid intense controversy over the changes he has wielded at the USPS and their effects on mail delivery ahead of the presidential election in November. DeJoy, for the record, is a Republican party and Trump donor and ally.
Under DeJoy’s oversight since June of the agency, there have also been reports of blue mail collection boxes being removed and a reduction in large mail-sorting machines, the timing of which seems to be a tad bit suspicious.
“When I found out about it, we socialized with the leadership team and looked at what the excitement it was creating so I decided to stop it and we’ll pick it up after the election,” DeJoy said, according to CNN. “But this a normal process that has been around for 50 years.”
“The mail volume, you know, is dropping very rapidly and especially during the COVID crisis,” he continued. “And package volume is growing, and when I spoke with the team — when this too became —got a lot of airplay, we really are moving these machines out to make room to process packages. We still have hundreds of these machines everywhere and still not any kind of drain on the capacity.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“I repeat, both the collection boxes and this machine closedown I was — I was made aware when everybody else was made aware,” the postmaster general added.
OK, we still find the timing to be very suspicious. At any rate, DeJoy then threw his support behind mail-in voting.
DeJoy vowed that the USPS would “deliver every ballot and process every ballot in time that it receives.”
“I think the American public should be able to vote by mail,” DeJoy said, and added that the Postal Service will support it.
I’m watching Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testify before the U.S. Senate today. Follow along here.
In response to @senrobportman, DeJoy says: “I think the American public should be able to vote by mail and the Postal Service will support it.”
— Andy Kroll (@AndyKroll) August 21, 2020
DeJoy, though, said he has no intention of returning any mail sorting machines that have been removed recently.
Watch:
SEN. PETERS: Will you bring back any mail sorting machines that have been removed recently?
DeJOY: There is not intention to do that. They are not needed. pic.twitter.com/ClKxv9Gxlf
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2020
We’re not feeling confident about DeJoy being at the helm of the Post Office. And on Thursday, Trump threatened to send law enforcement, including sheriffs to polling places on election day in November. The president is afraid that the American people will vote.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
