Is President Trump and his Administration attempting to sabotage the November election by undermining the U.S. Postal Serviceability to process election ballots cast by mail due to nearly all the polls show him badly trailing his Democratic challenger, former Vice-President Joe Biden?
That question was at the heart of two days of Congressional testimony Friday and Monday when lawmakers called U.S. Postmaster General Louis De Joy before them to answer questions about an onslaught of complaints from citizens across the country regarding slow delivery service since he was appointed to his position in June by the President.
The hearings were prompted by fears the Trump Administration is using the newly appointed Postmaster to suppress the vote ahead of the election by sabotaging postal delivery services in an effort to undermine citizen’s faith in the vote by mail process. Given the fallout from the deadly and highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic, election officials are expecting to see a record number of ballots cast by mail during the November 2020 Presidential Election.
Trump, has angrily and falsely denounced the widely used voting process as corrupt and said its use will result in a rigged election against him – although he, his family members, and member of his Administration regularly use the option to vote themselves.
De Joy, a major Trump and Republican Party donor, was appointed to the position with no prior experience or relationship with the U.S. Post Office. At his hearing Friday, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee which oversees the U.S. Postal Service, questioned the rational for De Joy’s ordering the postal service to remove hundreds of mail sorting machines, and mailboxes throughout many urban communities along with the denial of overtime for workers in the midst of a deadly public health pandemic and on the eve of what is expected to be a record number of votes cast in a U.S. Presidential election.
He noted that his office has received more than 7,500 complaints from people in Michigan and across the country who have seen harmful mail delays under De Joy’s brief tenure and cited reports of delayed medication, lost customers and revenue for small businesses and challenges voting by mail. Peters also shared the stories of constituents whose health and businesses have been severely impacted by delays, including a constituent who was hospitalized after having to ration her medication when her refill did not arrive by mail on time…
“For more than two centuries, Americans have been able to count on the Postal Service. But in less than two months as Postmaster General – you have undermined one of our nation’s most trusted institutions and wreaked havoc on families, veterans, seniors, rural communities and people across our country,” he said.
“The country is anxious about whether the damage you have inflicted so far can be quickly reversed, and what other plans you have in store that could further disrupt or damage reliable, timely delivery from the Postal Service,” Peters said.
In the nationally televised hearing De Joy flatly denied is agency was deliberately undermining the vote by mail process and vowed the Post Office will deliver the nation’s election mail “securely and on time,” calling it a “sacred duty.”
“There has been no changes in any policies with regard to the election mail for the 2020 election,” he said.
However, he promised to suspend any further actions that might result in the slowing of service to the public. He did not promise to reverse changes made that caused the disruption.
Leaders of the civil rights community reacted with skepticism to De Joy’s testimony, his reassurances to the legislators notwithstanding.
A group of civil rights organizations led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights recently filed a lawsuit over the changes at the USPS noting that on August 7, De Joy announced a hiring freeze and a request for voluntary early retirement, effectively preventing the alleviation of existing staffing shortages resulting from the pandemic.
The lawsuit notes in the week following that announcement, the civil rights groups pointed out it came to light that USPS had begun removing mail sorting machines from postal distribution centers across the country. It ultimately decommissioned 671 high-volume sorting machines—fully one-eighth of nationwide USPS capacity, together capable of sorting 21.4 million pieces of mail per hour.
Internal USPS planning documents confirm that this targeted reduction in mail processing capacity included between a 20% and 40% reduction in the number of sorting machines located at facilities in the Great Lakes region, including significant reductions in Indiana. Also revealed was the removal of neighborhood mailboxes across the country which, combined with a reduction in hours at local post offices, may make it more difficult for individual voters to timely cast and place their ballots in the mail.
The lawsuit was filed less than two weeks after De Joy fired or reassigned more than 30 members of the top leadership and managers at the USPS.
Mark Brewer, a Southfield-based civil rights attorney and voting rights expert said Michigan has been directly harmed by De Joy’s actions.
“There have been a number of press reports that indicate three mail processing facilities in Michigan there have been mail processing machines removed,” he said. “Pontiac has the biggest processing machine in the country. It processes mail in Michigan and for part of Ohio and processing machines have been moved in Grand Rapids and two in Pontiac, and maybe more.”
Brewer said it has definitely created a backlog throughout the state and he for the fall anywhere from 60-75 percent of Michiganders may be casting their votes by absentee ballot.
“And you combine that with De Joy taking over and mail getting suddenly slowed down he is a big contributor, so, the circumstances speak for themselves notwithstanding what Trump and De Joy are saying,” he said.
According to a report in the Detroit News about 2.5 million people voted in Michigan recent primary, exceeding the previous primary record of 2.2 million voters in 2018. Nearly 1.6 million absentee ballots made up more than 60% of the ballots cast. In Livingston, Oakland, Kent, Ingham and Wayne counties, Democratic absentee participation ranged between 70% and 80% of overall Democratic turnout, while Republican absentee use ranged between 45% and 55% of overall GOP ballots.
Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has estimated that more than two-thirds of the ballots cast in November could be absentee, due in large measure to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And civil rights advocates argue that reliable mail service is a basic public good and an essential part of American democracy. And, like Benson, they claim amid the COVID-19 pandemic, mail-in voting is more important than ever, as it allows for voters to maintain social distancing while casting secure ballots. Indeed, historic levels of mail-in voting are expected for the November 2020 election, for which over three-quarters of Americans will be eligible to request a ballot by mail.
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the Chronicle on Monday that even as the country faces an uphill battle against COVID-19 and systemic racism, we’re witnessing a significant onslaught against our postal system at a time when prompt mail delivery matters more than ever, especially for voters of color.
Noting President Trump’s ardent opposition to Black voting rights and vow to veto the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which restores the 1965 Voting Rights Act which was badly emasculated in 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court, and his Department of Justice failure to take any meaningful action to stop widespread voter suppression since he took office, Clarke said the motives behind the disruption of postal service is obvious.
“Postmaster General Louis De Joy has wreaked havoc across the country with reckless policies intended to disrupt the timely delivery of mail just weeks in advance of a general election,” she said. “Without question, De Joy is weaponizing the United States Postal Service (USPS) to disenfranchise Americans who choose to vote by mail amid an unprecedented pandemic gripping the nation. We are filing this lawsuit to stop actions that were adopted unlawfully and that were intended to cause delays intended to disrupt the November election. De Joy’s statement vowing to suspend changes rings hollow in the absence of remedial action taken to address the damage that his actions have caused.”
Still, despite election experts insisting there is no proof to the allegation, Trump, who the Washington Post fact-checker verified has blatantly lied or misrepresented facts to the public more than 20,000 times since becoming President, continues to claim that voting by mail-in ballots during the Presidential election would result in voter fraud.
Which Clarke and other civil rights leaders said is nothing less than another attempt by him to suppress the vote.
“This willful and blatant attempt to obstruct the mail system amid a pandemic and on the precipice a pivotal election is a threat to the people of this nation to exercise their right to be heard in a fair and free election. The NAACP is committed to fighting for its members and the people of this nation to ensure we all have unfettered access to the ballot box, whether through in-person or mail-in voting,” said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP.
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