From the BBC:
“US election 2020: Democrats call
for inquiry into Postal Service changes”
Congressional Democrats have
called for an investigation into decisions made by the head of the US Postal
Service (USPS), which they say have slowed deliveries ahead of the election. There
is expected to be a huge rise in mail-in voting in November's presidential
vote, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats have suggested cost-cutting at
USPS could affect the vote count. But postal chief Louis DeJoy has insisted
standards will be met. "Although there will likely be an unprecedented
increase in election mail volume due to the pandemic, the Postal Service has
ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on-time in accordance
with our delivery standards, and we will do so," the Trump supporter told
a board meeting on Friday. But he said election officials had to "take our
normal processing and delivery standards into account". Top Democrats
including Senator Elizabeth Warren on Friday called on the USPS inspector
general to investigate operational changes made by Mr DeJoy, including
preventing postal workers from working overtime to deliver mail. "Given
the ongoing concerns about the adverse impacts of Trump Administration policies
on the quality and efficiency of the Postal Service, we ask that you conduct an
audit of all operational changes put in place by Mr DeJoy and other Trump
Administration officials in 2020," they said. They asked for the inquiry
to specifically focus on how this could affect election-related mail. President
Donald Trump has suggested that increased postal voting in November could lead
to fraud and inaccurate results, There is little evidence to support his
claims. Mr DeJoy insisted on Friday that USPS was "not slowing down
election mail or any other mail". While he had "good
relationship" with Mr Trump, "the notion that I would ever make
decisions concerning the Postal Service at the direction of the president, or
anyone else in the administration, is wholly off-base", he said. A
spokesperson for the Postal Service said it would welcome an investigation by
the inspector general into the changes being made to make the service
"more efficient". Primary elections in New York city on 23 June were
hit hard by counting delays after a surge in mail-in ballots, leaving two
congressional races without a winner for several weeks. That vote has been seen
by some as a warning of what could happen in the November election. The US
Postal Service lost $2.2bn (£1.7bn) in the three months to June and is in a
"dire" financial position, said Mr DeJoy, who also on Friday released
details of an overhaul of the agency's leadership, including a management
hiring freeze. The Republican donor took over USPS in June and is the first
postmaster general in nearly 20 years to be appointed from outside the agency,
the Associated Press reports. Changes he has made to cut costs threaten
"the timely delivery of mail - including medicines for seniors, paychecks
for workers, and absentee ballots for voters," Ms Pelosi and top Senate
Democrat Chuck Schumer said on Thursday. The pair met with Mr DeJoy and White
House officials on Wednesday in a meeting that Mr Schumer described as
"heated". According to the Washington Post, the USPS leadership
shake-up reassigns or displaces 23 top executives.
^ There does need to be an
investigation into the USPS and its very slow delivery of mail. The
investigation should also look into the Postmaster-General because it seems he
was only put in that post to make things even more worse at the USPS and to
give credit to Trump’s claims about Election mail fraud. ^
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