However, the groundwork for this assault on the post office and mail-in voting was laid by Mitch McConnell, who blocked all of Barack Obama's nominations to the Postal Service Board of Governors. By the time Trump came to office, there was only one remaining member of the board. Trump nominated enough GOP-leaning members of the board to make a quorum, which McConnell then quickly had confirmed by the Senate. The GOP-dominated board then pressured civil servant Megan Brennan to decline a second term as Postmaster general, with the Deputy Postmaster General retiring from his post soon thereafter.
DeJoy, a former Republican fundraiser is invested heavily in companies competing against the post office- which means he would personally and financially benefit if the post office fails under his leadership. He was installed at the post office back in May and immediately instituted changes that would deliberately slow down mail delivery, admitting there would be consequences as a result of the changes he was implementing. DeJoy instituted cost-cutting measures that banned postal workers from making extra trips to ensure on-time mail delivery and cracked down on overtime that local postmasters often rely on to clear mail backlogs.
He was soon summoned by congressional leaders to explain what he was doing to slow down mail delivery. Although Trump recently told reporters that he had never spoken with Lousi DeJoy as Postmaster General, the Washington Post reported that right before DeJoy went to that meeting with congressional democrats, he met with Trump in the oval office. Another Trump lie-- what a surprise.
After the meeting with congressional leaders, DeJoy unexpectedly removed over two dozen executives from their jobs late on a Friday night-- including the top two officials in charge of day-to-day operations. The sudden move to sideline career postal service executives and managers is widely believed to concentrate the power and control of mail delivery in DeJoy himself.
Then observers started to learn it wasn't just policy changes that DeJoy intended to slow down mail. Reports also began to leak from postal workers that DeJoy had also ordered the removal of sorting machines from post office across the country. In many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots, calling into question promises made by the new Postmaster General that the USPS had “ample capacity” to handle the predicted surge in mail-in ballots.
Further reporting revealed that DeJoy had ordered over 670 of its letter sorting machines be decommissioned. As it turns out, the majority of the machines being removed is concentrated in high-populated areas-- that is, places where democrats live.
Soon, local press across the country (here, here, and here) disclosed that notification letters had been sent by the USPS, warning the states that ballots won't be delivered on time in order for them to be counted. So when it comes to mailing ballots-- it appears that the postal service expects the states to figure out something on their own-- the USPS can't be counted on this time around.
The slow downs in the mail are already having a material effect on peoples lives-- bills aren't arriving on time and payments are not being transmitted timely, so consumer are getting hit with late fees; prescriptions are arriving late; social security checks are being delayed; small business owners have been reporting that their business operations are getting screwed up by chronic postal delays. Retired three -star Army General Russel Honore, the man who led the troops who restored Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, went public with his anger over the Trump-ordered post office slow-down, which he said is preventing him from getting his utility bills-- which he said will be turned off, if they're not paid on time. He was also forced to leave his home during the COVID crisis to pick up medications because mail deliveries are running dangerously behind.
And this isn't a temporary mail delivery glitch due to the COVID--- this is a deliberate sabotage of the constitutionally-mandated mail delivery by an ill-intentioned or incompetent Trump appointee. Even worse, Louis DeJoy himself admits that what he is doing is the cause. Lots of people are getting pissed. We all pay for mail service-- with our taxes and with the postage we buy-- so it's understandable that people are getting mad about their postal service getting screwed with, and they are even volunteering to help out any way the can.
But it didn't stop there. The NBC affiliate in Montana reported last Friday on plans to virtually steal mailboxes from under voters' noses. They documented efforts that were underway to remove 40% of the mailboxes in Missoula and over 50% of the mailboxes in Billings.
Jon Tester wrote a letter to the post master general over the scandal, which was instrumental in garnering public support against the removals. The potential removal of mailboxes, which would further threaten election turnout, generated social media panic and high-profile blowback from state officials and other congressmen.
After much pressure, the removal of collection boxes was put on hold statewide. Later, the USPS unintentionally confirmed that the subversive effort was designed to be rolled out across many other states- but that the effort had been put on hold nationally. “We are not going to be removing any boxes,” USPS spokesman Rod Spurgeon said. “After the election, we’re going to take a look at operations and see what we need and don’t need.”
Delivery of mail is constitutional mandated and is fully integrated into our lives-- it is uncontroversial, affecting both liberals and conservatives. It is how we get our letters, bills, payments, essential goods (during the COVID crisis) and our election ballots. Hopefully, this will generate widespread condemnation from all citizens and generate further pressure on the Senate and the White House to fully fund our postal service and quit screwing around with absentee/mail-in voting.
In know somebody that's already taking it seriously. New Jersey congressman Bill Pascrell made a criminal referral to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal seeking a grand jury to look at electoral subversion by Donald Trump and Louis DeJoy in their attack on the Postal Service. Let's hope the Senate takes this as seriously.
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