It appears from his recent actions that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is dead set on preventing our votes from being counted. Appointed in June by President Trump, DeJoy has provided yet another platform for the president to win in November at any and all costs.
Rather than serve the American people, as is his duty and responsibility, DeJoy — one of the few leaders of the U.S. Postal Service not to come from within the agency in recent years — is serving a president and a Republican Party to which he has contributed millions of dollars.
Indeed, DeJoy’s lack of experience in all things having to do with the Postal Service became abundantly clear during testimony Monday at a House Oversight Committee hearing when he could not recall the cost of a stamp in response to a question from Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif.
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Internal USPS documents released this week show that DeJoy was warned about steep declines in postal services, along with increasing mail delivery delays nationwide, over the last two months.
What’s the reason for these delays? DeJoy testified that the “dip in the level of service” is a result of “temporary service impacts” and “unintended consequences.”
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But don’t be fooled. These delays in the delivery of Social Security benefits, prescription drugs, election ballots and other important mail are part of a premeditated effort by Trump, DeJoy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and the Republican Party to prevent Americans from casting their votes.
This week, the official Twitter account of the Postal Service posted a tweet that simply said: “If you plan to vote by mail, plan ahead.” A fair warning from career USPS bureaucrats in response to the Republican efforts to slow mail delivery.
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And why? Simply put, because Trump and his Republican cronies know that they will lose on Nov. 3 if Americans are empowered to vote — by mail or in-person — safely and securely. They know this in their hearts. And yet they will do everything they can to stay in power, even if it threatens the basic tenets of our democracy.
For this thinly disguised attack on our democratic electoral process, I have one word for Trump: Shame! Sadly, he has none.
While the coronavirus rages, killing nearly 180,000 Americans, and while millions of our fellow citizens continue to take to the streets of our cities and towns to protest racial inequality and police brutality, one of the most important elections of our lives looms.
Our votes, every single one of them, have historic and unprecedented significance.
Regardless of which political party you identify with (or whether you identify with one at all), you should be alarmed by the president’s disingenuous effort to prevent our constitutional right to vote.
Trump’s initial efforts to retain power were cloaked in terms of protecting Americans’ security. Seeking merely to influence Americans’ votes by soliciting and airing “dirt” on Democratic Party presidential nominee Joe Biden, Trump strong-armed leaders of Ukraine and openly encouraged Russian involvement in our last election.
Who can forget candidate Trump’s unbelievable statement made at a news conference in July 2016 asking Russia to hack Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails and make them public?
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said of emails Clinton had deleted from her private account when she was secretary of state. “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
But after his pressure on Ukraine to come up with damaging information about Joe Biden led to the president’s impeachment by the House, Trump has shifted his focus to attempting to influence our votes by using Postmaster General DeJoy to cripple our Postal Service from the inside. The president’s goal is to sabotage voting by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
Unfortunately for us, it appears to be much easier for Trump to disenfranchise Americans domestically: Just make it harder for us to vote.
And the diabolical timing of DeJoy’s installation as postmaster general and his dismantling of the Postal Service is certainly no coincidence.
Fortunately for us, if the scenario unfolding in Ohio right now is any indication, we Americans understand the dire stakes of the looming election, and we will fight to vote “like our lives depend on it” (as Michelle Obama told us last week) to overcome the obstacles that Trump, DeJoy, McConnell and the Republican Party are putting in front of our constitutional right to vote.
Trump and his Republican cronies know that they will lose on Nov. 3 if Americans are empowered to vote
According to The Columbus Dispatch, more than two months before Election Day absentee ballot applications are pouring into Ohio boards of elections at an unprecedented rate. Predicting “historic turnout” for the 2020 election in his state, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has said that as many as half of Ohio’s ballots may be cast by mail. Good for you, Ohioans!
Make no mistake: Responsible legislators from both parties understand that protecting Americans’ right to vote is a bipartisan issue.
In 2018, anticipating potential election impediments, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Tim Kaine, D-Va.; and John Kennedy, R-La., introduced the Support our Military Spouses Act. This legislation — which died due, as always, to McConnell blocking it — would have amended the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to ensure that military spouses do not have to establish new legal residency after military reassignment in order to, among other constitutional rights, register to vote.
In fact, we need only look to the U.S. military for proof that voting by mail can be implemented safely and securely nationwide for every eligible American.
Since the Civil War, soldiers stationed far from home have voted absentee by mail without significant fraud. For the sake of the almost 200,000 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen and women stationed around the world, we must work together to protect their right to vote, just as they serve to protect ours.
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Indeed, many of the arguments against vote-by-mail that President Trump and his GOP allies voice today echo objections from more than a century ago.
Certainly, our Postal Service has flaws — case in point, the 28.3 million mail-in ballots that remain unaccounted for between 2012 and 2018. But that is precisely why we need a Postal Service and a postmaster general that will ensure the USPS and our great and patriotic Postal Service employees operate at their maximum capacity from now through November.
The last thing we need is for drastic operational and organizational changes to be imposed on the Postal Service shortly before a presidential election.
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When the chapter on the 2020 election is written, We the People must not allow it to be about voter suppression or disenfranchisement.
To the contrary, we must guarantee that the words “We the People” reflect the best we have to offer each other as Americans — regardless of whether we are Democratic, Republican or independent voters. And we must make sure that the men and women we elect to serve us protect and defend our right to vote.