Postmaster general insists to Congress that mail-in ballots will

WASHINGTON — U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Thursday in congressional testimony that voters can “absolutely” trust that their mail-in ballots will be secure and prioritized, even as he stressed the need to mail them at least a week in advance of state deadlines Delivery on time.

DeJoy’s testimony to House lawmakers turned heated at times, as lawmakers questioned whether delays in general mail delivery and previous problems with mail-in ballots in battleground states could disenfranchise voters this year.

DeJoy also raised questions about the Postal Service’s facilities, calling them “shabby” twice during the investigation. hour-long hearing.

His various comments about USPS management and how the agency plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations subcommittee.

For example, in response to a question from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., about the speed of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy responded: “The first rocket to the moon exploded, okay.”

Pocan then said, “Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” before DeJoy gave a longer answer.

“As we move forward, we’re going to make a series of transaction adjustments, service measurement adjustments, and service metric adjustments that will give you 95 percent reliability in your service,” DeJoy said.

Mail millions of votes

The hearing comes as state officials across the country are preparing or have already sent out millions of mail-in ballots that are likely to determine the outcome of congressional elections and possibly even the presidential election.

A central part of the 2020 presidential election, mail-in voting has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic and remains a popular way for voters to decide who will represent their interests in government.

Voters can also cast their ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day.

Many of the questions raised by lawmakers at the hearing focused on how the Postal Service ensures the security of mail-in ballots and whether the agency will be able to deliver them on time, although some lawmakers expressed frustration with DeJoy’s plan to change USPS operations.

Asked specifically whether Americans can trust the U.S. Postal Service to handle their election mail, DeJoy said: “Absolutely.”

“I don’t know why you didn’t do it,” he testified. “We achieved this during the height of the pandemic, during the most sensational political time of the election, and … I mentioned before, we achieved 99 percentile.”

DeJoy has previously said that during the 2020 election, the United States Postal Service (USPS) delivered 99.89% of mail-in ballots within seven days.

DeJoy wrote in testimony to the committee ahead of the hearing that not all state laws consider the speed of the U.S. Postal Service when determining when voters can request a mail-in ballot and when it is mailed.

“For example, some jurisdictions allow voters to request a mail-in ballot closer to Election Day,” he wrote. “Depending on when the ballot is mailed to a voter, even with extraordinary measures, that voter may not receive the ballot in the mail, complete the ballot, and return the ballot in a timely manner by the jurisdiction’s deadline, despite our best efforts.”

“I saw horror”

DeJoy singled out conditions at U.S. Postal Service facilities several times during the hearing, suggesting they were not clean and did not meet his work environment standards.

“When I walked into our factories and facilities, I saw horror. My employees saw another day at work,” DeJoy said.

Asked whether USPS employees were properly trained to process and deliver mail-in ballots on time, DeJoy said leadership had “significantly increased our training” before disparaging the facilities.

“I would say we are tasked with training over 600,000 people in 31,000 broken locations every day on how to improve our operating practices across the board, particularly right now in the area of ​​election mail,” he testified. “We did a good job at it, just not perfect.”

When DeJoy separately said he was “sitting on about $20 billion in cash,” the panelists did not ask him to clarify what he meant by “rags,” and no one followed up.

A spokesman for the Postal Service said they had nothing to add to DeJoy’s characterization when asked about the “vulgar” comments in U.S. newsrooms.

“If you were listening to the hearing, you would only hear him further describe the conditions at postal facilities,” Marsha S. Johnson wrote in an email shortly after DeJoy made his “horrible” comments. “I have nothing to add to that.”

Delivering to rural America

Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., asked DeJoy at the hearing how plans to “consolidate resources in denser areas” under the so-called “Delivering for America” ​​plan would affect rural areas. Overall delivery time for residents.

DeJoy disagreed with the premise of the question, saying he believed it was “an unfair accusation given the conditions under which the Postal Service has been allowed to arrive.”

DeJoy said the U.S. Postal Service has committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and has guaranteed that mail will not take more than five days to arrive.

“It won’t take more than five days because I’ll put it in the air and fly it if I have to,” DeJoy said.

Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents have requested to vote by mail during the 2022 midterm elections, and he expects this number to increase this year.

The commonwealth is home to numerous competitive U.S. House districts, hotly contested U.S. Senate races and is considered a key swing state in the presidential election. Several of those races could be decided by mail-in ballots that arrived on time.

Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, asked DeJoy about the Cleveland-area classification facility during the 2023 election. Joyce said the secretary of state discovered that some mail-in ballots sent as early as Oct. 24 did not arrive until Nov. 21.

“These voters are disenfranchised because of the failure of the U.S. Postal Service,” Joyce said. “How exactly are all the clear procedures you mentioned in your response to the National Association of Secretaries of State being strengthened? Can you assure us that those procedures will ensure that this doesn’t happen in the upcoming election?

DeJoy responded that he “needs specifics on what’s going on in Cleveland,” but said the Postal Service’s procedures have been “dramatically enhanced.”

Georgia’s main issues

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., who did not join the panel, asked DeJoy a question about how a new regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta would play into the Republican president’s early days earlier this year. Mail delivery in the weeks leading up to election had “negative impact” year.

DeJoy said the Postal Service is investing more than $500 million in the region, but acknowledged that “what happened in Georgia is embarrassing to the organization and, well, that shouldn’t happen.”

“We are actively correcting this problem,” DeJoy said. “Especially on the primary side, we were successful because I put a bunch of people out there and put a whole bunch of double-checking processes in place.”

DeJoy added that “Georgia’s election mail is doing well” and that the U.S. Postal Service will be delivering Georgia’s mail-in ballots “very well” in the coming weeks.