WASHINGTON – U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on Thursday that voters can “completely” trust that their absentee ballots will be secure and prioritized, although he stressed that they must be mailed at least a week before various state deadlines be delivered on time.
DeJoy’s testimony to House lawmakers became heated at times as members questioned whether mail delivery delays and previous problems with absentee ballots in swing states could disenfranchise voters this year.
DeJoy also cast doubt on the USPS facilities, calling them “weird” twice during the trial. hour-long interrogation.
His various comments about USPS management and the agency’s plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittees.
For example, in response to a question from Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan about the rate of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy replied that “the first rockets that went to the moon blew up, OK.”
Pocan then said, “Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” before DeJoy gave a longer response.
“As work progresses, we will make a number of transactional adjustments, service metrics and service metrics that will bring our service reliability to 95%,” DeJoy said.
Millions of ballots sent by mail
The hearing came as state officials across the country were preparing or had already sent out millions of absentee ballots that could very well decide the results of congressional and potentially even presidential elections.
Voting by mail has surged in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, is a centerpiece of the 2020 presidential election, and remains a popular way for voters to decide who will represent their interests in government.
Voters can also cast ballots in person during early voting and on Election Day.
He won’t last more than five days because I’ll throw him up in the air and fly him if I need to
– Postmaster General Louis DeJoy
During the hearing, lawmakers focused on a number of questions related to how USPS ensures the security of mailed ballots and whether the agency can deliver them on time, although several members expressed frustration with DeJoy’s plans to change operations at USPS.
Asked specifically whether Americans can trust the USPS to handle election mail, DeJoy replied: “Absolutely.”
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t do it,” he testified. “We did it at the height of the pandemic, during the most sensational political election period, and… we did it at 99 percentage points, as I mentioned earlier.”
DeJoy previously said that during the 2020 election, USPS delivered 99.89% of mailed ballots within seven days.
DeJoy wrote in testimony to the committee before the hearing that not all state laws take USPS speed into account when deciding when voters can request absentee ballots and when they are mailed.
“For example, in some jurisdictions, voters may request an absentee ballot very close to Election Day,” he wrote. “Depending on when a ballot is mailed to a voter, it may be physically impossible for that voter to receive the mail, complete the ballot, and return the mail ballot in time to meet the jurisdiction’s deadline, even with our extraordinary measures, and despite our best efforts.”
“I see terror”
DeJoy himself raised the issue of the condition of USPS facilities at several points during the hearing, suggesting that they were not immaculate or up to his standards as a work environment.
“I walk into our factories and facilities and I see horror. “My employees are just living another day at work,” DeJoy said.
In response to a question about whether USPS workers received adequate training to handle and deliver mail-in ballots in a timely manner, DeJoy claimed that management had “overwhelmingly improved our training” before disparaging the facilities.
“We are on a mission every day to train over 600,000 people in 31,000 suspected locations, I would say, on how to improve our operational practices in all areas, and now especially in the area of election mail,” he testified. “We are doing very well at this, but not perfect.”
None of the panel members asked DeJoy to clarify what he meant by “weird” or reacted when he separately stated that he “has about $20 billion in cash.”
A USPS spokesman said they had nothing to add to DeJoy’s characterization when asked about the “weird” comment from States Newsroom.
“If you are listening to the hearing, you just heard him further describe the state of postal facilities,” Martha S. Johnson wrote in an email sent shortly after DeJoy made his “appalling” comment. – I have nothing to add.
Supplies for rural Americans
Pennsylvania U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-8) asked DeJoy during the hearing about how plans to “consolidate resources around higher population density regions” under the so-called “Supply for America” plan would impact overall delivery times for residents of rural areas.
DeJoy disagreed with the intent of the question, saying it was “an unfair accusation given the state the Postal Service has been allowed to reach.”
DeJoy said USPS has committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and promised that mail delivery will take no more than five days.
“It won’t take more than five days because I’ll get it in the air and fly it if I need to,” DeJoy said.
Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvanians have requested to vote by mail in the 2022 midterm elections, a number he expects to boost this year.
The commonwealth has many competitive U.S. House districts, a competitive U.S. Senate race and is considered a key swing state in the presidential election. Several of these races could be decided based on mailed ballots that arrived on time.
County officials must notify voters when absentee ballots are rejected, a Pa. court has ruled
The subcommittee’s chairman, Ohio Republican David Joyce, asked DeJoy about problems with the Cleveland regional sorting facility during the 2023 election. The secretary of state, Joyce said, found that some mail-in ballots sent as early as October 24 did not arrive until November 21.
“These voters have been disenfranchised because of the USPS failures,” Joyce said. “How have you specifically improved all the clear procedures you mentioned in response to the call from the National Association of Secretaries of State? Can you assure us that these procedures will ensure that this will not happen in the upcoming elections?”
DeJoy replied that he would “need details about Cleveland,” but said USPS procedures were “tremendously improved.”
Basic problems of Georgia
Georgia Republican Andrew Clyde, who is not on the panel, asked DeJoy a question about how a modern regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta had a “negative impact” on mail delivery in the weeks before the GOP presidential primary, which took place earlier this year. year.
DeJoy said the USPS has invested more than $500 million in the region, but acknowledged that “what happened in Georgia was an embarrassment to the organization, OK, and it shouldn’t have happened.”
“We are aggressively correcting this,” DeJoy said. “Especially when it came to the primaries, we were able to get through it because I put a whole group of people there and implemented a whole bunch of dual control processes.”
DeJoy added that “Georgia’s election mail was working well” and that USPS would deliver absentee ballots to Georgia in the coming weeks “fine.”
