U.S. Democrats step up pressure on postal service cuts ahead of election

[webfact]

U.S. Democrats step up pressure on postal service cuts ahead of election

By Jonathan Landay and David Lawder

 

United States Postal Service (USPS) mailboxes are stacked in an industrial lot in Hartford, Wisconsin, U.S., August 16, 2020. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democrats on Sunday stepped up their efforts to rein in a cost-cutting campaign by President Donald Trump's appointed postmaster general that has stoked fears about holding up mail-in ballots ahead of the November election.

 

Top Democrats in Congress called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and another top postal official to testify this month at a hearing on a wave of cuts that has slowed mail delivery around the country, alarming lawmakers ahead of the Nov. 3 election when up to half of U.S. voters could cast ballots by mail.

 

At least six Democratic state attorneys general were in discussions about what legal means they might pursue to stop changes to the Postal Service that could affect the election outcome, the Washington Post reported, citing interviews with multiple attorneys general.

 

Congressional Democrats called on DeJoy, a Trump donor, and Postal Service Chairman Robert Duncan to testify at an Aug. 24 hearing of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform.

 

"The President has explicitly stated his intention to manipulate the Postal Service to deny eligible voters access to the ballot in pursuit of his own re-election," Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said in a joint statement. "The Postmaster General and top Postal Service leadership must answer to the Congress and the American people as to why they are pushing these dangerous new policies that threaten to silence the voices of millions, just months before the election."

DeJoy did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Schumer in a statement called on the Postal Service's board of governors to remove DeJoy if he "refuses to come before Congress."

 

Democrats have accused Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, of trying to hamstring the cash-strapped Postal Service to suppress mail-in voting.

 

Trump on Thursday said he had held up talks with Congress over a fresh round of coronavirus stimulus funding to block Democrats from providing more funds for mail-in voting and election infrastructure.

 

Trump later walked back those comments, saying he would not veto a bill that included funds for the Postal Service. White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN on Sunday said he would agree to $10 billion to $25 billion in fresh Postal funding. The Democratic-controlled House approved $25 billion in a bill passed in May.

 

The Washington Post reported that the attorneys general of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Washington and North Carolina were in talks about legal steps to stop changes to the Postal Service that could influence the election's outcome.

 

"We will use all our authority to ensure every eligible vote is secure, protected, and counted in November," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "Make no mistake, the President of the United States is trying to undermine the election."

 

Officials at offices of the other five attorneys general cited by the Post could not immediately be reached for comment on Sunday.

 

The U.S. Postmaster General is under fire for making changes that slowed deliveries ahead of a November election where up to half of all voters could try to cast ballots by mail. This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

 

Mark Dimondstein, the head of the 200,000-plus-member American Postal Workers Union, on Sunday said the Postal Service's Republican-dominated governing board sought more than $25 billion.

 

'TIME FOR CONGRESS TO ACT'

Appearing on Fox News, he said the service required emergency funds due to the pandemic-driven economic slowdown, pointing out that it received no funds in a stimulus package passed in March.

 

"The Congress and this administration took care of the private sector to the tune of over $500 billion," said Dimondstein. "The postal office did not get a dime. It's time for Congress to act."

 

Pelosi may recall lawmakers from a summer recess to address changes at the Postal Service, a Democratic congressional aide said on Saturday.

 

Separately, Meadows told CNN's State of the Union that the White House fears a surge in mail-in voting could delay election results and leave the naming of the new president to the speaker of the House.

 

"A number of states are now trying to figure out how they are going to go to universal mail-in ballots," Meadows said. "That's a disaster where we won't know the election results on Nov. 3 and we might not know it for months and for me that's problematic because the Constitution says that then a Nancy Pelosi in the House would actually pick the president on Jan. 20."

 

Trump has repeatedly and without evidence said that a surge in mail-in voting would lead to fraud. Voting by mail is nothing new in the United States, as one in four voters cast ballots that way in 2016.

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and David Lawder, additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Scott Malone, Lisa Shumaker, Nick Zieminski and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-08-17

 

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[Tug]

Hope it bears fruit this voter suppression tactic of trump is backfiring imo everyone sees it for what it is trump is attempting to force folks to risk their health to vote we should have every method available to us to have a free and fair election without voter suppression and foreign interference 

[rabas]

And, New Zealand just postponed their election over about a dozen cases. 

[cmarshall]

40 minutes ago, rabas said:

And, New Zealand just postponed their election over about a dozen cases. 

So, you think Ardern should wait until there is a large spike in cases before taking action?

[Chomper Higgot]

43 minutes ago, rabas said:

And, New Zealand just postponed their election over about a dozen cases. 

Irrelevant.

 

Trump can’t suddenly claim any urgency to respond to the Pandemic, he can’t even claim he accepts any responsibility at all to do anything. 

 

 

[Tug]

42 minutes ago, rabas said:

And, New Zealand just postponed their election over about a dozen cases. 

We have a tried and true method in place for over a century to have our election this is trump at best suppressing the vote and or attempting to rigg the election he’s pushing to make us and the election workers risk their health to vote not to mention all the folks that depend on the mail for their meds 

[Chomper Higgot]

Trump has twice stated his reason for attacking the post office is to suppress the vote.

 

Meanwhile his vandalism of the Post Office is causing real problems for Democrats, Republicans and swing voters alike, delaying the mail, delaying checks and bill payments, delaying medicine deliveries.

 

The tactics of a tin pot dictator in some Banana Republic directed from the White House by the President of the United States.

 

 

[Boon Mee]

11 minutes ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Irrelevant.

 

Trump can’t suddenly claim any urgency to respond to the Pandemic, he can’t even claim he accepts any responsibility at all to do anything. 

 

 

 Ah, but he can clamp down on the Democrats ballets harvesting scam that is a proven fraudulent means to corrupt an election 

[evadgib]

Trump is going to win no matter what they throw at him.

 

As a Brit my own experience of postal ballots was that a very large number of postal ballots intended for citizens abroad for our 2015 election went AWOL. Data received via FoI later revealed that 100+k had never been sent..

 

I'm all for embracing 21st century technology providing it is done properly. 1 vote per person is perfectly ok providing they're eligible and their ID can be verified.

 

Good luck America ????

Edited August 17, 2020 by evadgib

[Chomper Higgot]

15 minutes ago, Boon Mee said:

 Ah, but he can clamp down on the Democrats ballets harvesting scam that is a proven fraudulent means to corrupt an election 

Can’t have people voting can we!

[Tounge Thaied]

ANd all the election shenanigans start again.... "If voting made a difference, they wouldn't let us do it." - Mark Twain I believe it's a fake quote, but and apt one. It certainly Begs the question, why do 'they' let us vote? Answer: The illusion you have some say in our societies... you don't. You have owners. But the statist sheeples will go on and vote thinking they are actually participating in a functioning democracy.... ha ha!! I have a quote. Democracy is nothing more than the manipulation of the 51%. There's your participation sheep.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Tounge Thaied

[Katipo]

2 hours ago, rabas said:

And, New Zealand just postponed their election over about a dozen cases. 

I think NZ has shown itself to be quite a sensible country in recent times, the US, not so much. The former is considered to have a "healthy democracy", the latter, a "flawed" one. NZ's top ranked national philosophy is "fairness", which is one of the reasons NZ is rated the country with the most freedom in the world. By pursuing fairness, one has not need for fear. The fear of losing freedom, is ironically, one of the reasons freedom is slipping away.

[cycolista]

2 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

 Ah, but he can clamp down on the Democrats ballets harvesting scam that is a proven fraudulent means to corrupt an election 

Proven by who, QAnon?

[spidermike007]

Trump's willful suppression of postal funding, to suppress democratic voters, is an abomination, and a fully transparent attempt to bolster his chances. In reality, historically the GOP has been a huge supporter of mail in ballots, and they make total sense now, with Covid raging in the US.

 

Another desperate attempt by a man both unhinged and unstable. He will loze huuuugely.

Edited August 17, 2020 by spidermike007

[JBTouch]

I hope this works, that way everybody can vote, and I mean e v e r y b o d y.

[Tippaporn]

"We will use all our authority to ensure every eligible vote is secure, protected, and counted in November," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "Make no mistake, the President of the United States is trying to undermine the election."

 

Should read, ". . . every eligible and ineligible vote . . . "

 

PBS - The partisan conflict behind a quest to purge up to 800,000 voters from Pa.’s rolls

[stevenl]

23 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

"We will use all our authority to ensure every eligible vote is secure, protected, and counted in November," Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "Make no mistake, the President of the United States is trying to undermine the election."

 

Should read, ". . . every eligible and ineligible vote . . . "

 

PBS - The partisan conflict behind a quest to purge up to 800,000 voters from Pa.’s rolls

Nothing about ineligible voting in that article. The article is about judicial watch suing to clean up voter rolls. But with voters being required to actively ask for a ballot or show up in person at the ballot box, non-active voters on the rolls would have no effect at all on the actual votes.

[rcummings]

10 hours ago, cycolista said:

Proven by who, QAnon?

That's Mr. QAnon to you sir! And maybe someday President QAnon? We've all seen cases where the Emperor has no clothes, but a case where the clothes have no Emperor? 

[Tippaporn]

Interesting.  The postal service had filed this on Feb. 7th of this year.  Just published August 13th.

 

Forbes - U.S. Postal Service Counters Trump Attacks On Mail-In Voting With A New Blockchain Patent

 

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Secure Voting System

 

Not from the article but from the patent application (and apologies for having to use an article which is quite misleading re Trump):

 

"Voters generally wish to be able to vote for elected officials or on other issues in a manner that is convenient and secure."

 

"Further, those holding elections wish to be able to ensure that election results have not been tampered with and that the results actually correspond to the votes that were cast. In some embodiments, a blockchain allows the tracking of the various types of necessary data in a way that is secure and allows others to easily confirm that data has not been altered."

 

I'm all for using technology towards a convenient and secure voting system.  Definitely not in favour of mailing out ballots en masse using inaccurate and unpurged voter rolls.  Ballots which also can be forged and filled out by other than the actual voter.

 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by Tippaporn

[joecoolfrog]

Why would any president court infamy with such a blatant attempt at voter suppresion ?

The answer is that he is terrified of losing , not just scared but terrified that his legal protection will be gone.

Even his most loyal monkeys must now in their hearts  know they were duped , though some still wont face the fact.

[Tippaporn]

10 hours ago, stevenl said:

Nothing about ineligible voting in that article. The article is about judicial watch suing to clean up voter rolls. But with voters being required to actively ask for a ballot or show up in person at the ballot box, non-active voters on the rolls would have no effect at all on the actual votes.

In theory.

[rcummings]

11 hours ago, stevenl said:

Nothing about ineligible voting in that article. The article is about judicial watch suing to clean up voter rolls. But with voters being required to actively ask for a ballot or show up in person at the ballot box, non-active voters on the rolls would have no effect at all on the actual votes.

Judicial Watch has a history of making false claims about voter fraud. In 2017 they claimed that 11 counties in California had more registered voters than actual voters. When challenged, they refused to back up their claim. It was false.

In 2020 they made the same kind of claims about voter fraud in Iowa. Once again, it proved to be false.

[Scott]

A post has been removed.  I think we can dispense with calling an inquiry a hoax.  It's trolling.   Feel free to post information.  

 

[stevenl]

2 hours ago, rcummings said:

Judicial Watch has a history of making false claims about voter fraud. In 2017 they claimed that 11 counties in California had more registered voters than actual voters. When challenged, they refused to back up their claim. It was false.

In 2020 they made the same kind of claims about voter fraud in Iowa. Once again, it proved to be false.

I just don't understand these kind of posts, the one I reacted to. Someone tries to make a point, prove it with a link, but the link doesn't support the position at all, often even contradicts it.

[pedro01]

People were out in the streets yesterday, protesting for the right to not have to go out in the streets to cast their vote - because, you know - COVID. 

 

You couldn't make this stuff up.

 

Postal voting has always been a process of people requesting a ballot and then getting it. There is a verification step. The idea that everyone gets a postal ballot based on their last known address and then sends them back with no verification is nonsense.

 

This is 2020 - email killed the postal services. All that's left is bills from companies that didn't go electronic and junk email. The taxpayer funded service that remains to deliver this stuff is obviously not geared up to the massive increase in mail that will come from a mass postal voting event.

 

As for Trump "kneecapping" the postal service - he certainly is trying to block $25 billion dollars of taxpayer money being pumped into this obsolete service. Fact is - post offices do need to be whittled down - as the demand for the service is reducing. The fact that USPS delivers Amazon parcels at a loss is also a big issue.

 

If liberals can go out and protest this issue - they can go out to vote too.

Edited August 18, 2020 by pedro01

[earlinclaifornia]

7 hours ago, pedro01 said:

People were out in the streets yesterday, protesting for the right to not have to go out in the streets to cast their vote - because, you know - COVID. 

 

You couldn't make this stuff up.

 

Postal voting has always been a process of people requesting a ballot and then getting it. There is a verification step. The idea that everyone gets a postal ballot based on their last known address and then sends them back with no verification is nonsense.

 

This is 2020 - email killed the postal services. All that's left is bills from companies that didn't go electronic and junk email. The taxpayer funded service that remains to deliver this stuff is obviously not geared up to the massive increase in mail that will come from a mass postal voting event.

 

As for Trump "kneecapping" the postal service - he certainly is trying to block $25 billion dollars of taxpayer money being pumped into this obsolete service. Fact is - post offices do need to be whittled down - as the demand for the service is reducing. The fact that USPS delivers Amazon parcels at a loss is also a big issue.

 

If liberals can go out and protest this issue - they can go out to vote too.

Very cowardly

[Morch]

9 hours ago, rcummings said:

Judicial Watch has a history of making false claims about voter fraud. In 2017 they claimed that 11 counties in California had more registered voters than actual voters. When challenged, they refused to back up their claim. It was false.

In 2020 they made the same kind of claims about voter fraud in Iowa. Once again, it proved to be false.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_Watch

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/judicial-watch/

 

 

[candide]

11 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

In theory.

A factual search reveals a horrible track record with fact-checking. Below is a small sample of their failed fact checks by IFCN fact checkers

DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing ‘Vanloads’ of ‘Illegal Aliens’ Away from Border – FALSE

Has Nancy Pelosi spent $100,000 on food, booze and “partying” during her air travel? – FALSE

Judicial Watch says ISIS operating a camp in Mexico–near El Paso –  FALSE

‘Islamic Refugee’ with Gas Pipeline Plans Arrested in New Mexico Border County – FALSE

Did the IRS ‘Fast Track’ Tax-Exempt Status for ‘After School Satan’ Clubs? – FALSE

“More than 100,000 DACA applicants have been arrested—Murder, Rape, DUI.” – MOSTLY FALSE

Did a legal settlement between Judicial Watch and California election officials prove that one million illegal votes were cast in the 2018 elections in California? – FALSE (4/29/2020)

Overall, we rate Judicial Watch Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, promotion of conspiracy theories, and a very poor fact check record.

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/judicial-watch/

[Morch]

38 minutes ago, candide said:

A factual search reveals a horrible track record with fact-checking. Below is a small sample of their failed fact checks by IFCN fact checkers

DHS Quietly Moving, Releasing ‘Vanloads’ of ‘Illegal Aliens’ Away from Border – FALSE

Has Nancy Pelosi spent $100,000 on food, booze and “partying” during her air travel? – FALSE

Judicial Watch says ISIS operating a camp in Mexico–near El Paso –  FALSE

‘Islamic Refugee’ with Gas Pipeline Plans Arrested in New Mexico Border County – FALSE

Did the IRS ‘Fast Track’ Tax-Exempt Status for ‘After School Satan’ Clubs? – FALSE

“More than 100,000 DACA applicants have been arrested—Murder, Rape, DUI.” – MOSTLY FALSE

Did a legal settlement between Judicial Watch and California election officials prove that one million illegal votes were cast in the 2018 elections in California? – FALSE (4/29/2020)

Overall, we rate Judicial Watch Questionable based on extreme right-wing bias, promotion of conspiracy theories, and a very poor fact check record.

 

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/judicial-watch/

 

Yeah, but @Tippaporn already decreed fact checking websites to be __________ (fill in Trump supporters' nonsense here.).

[earlinclaifornia]

39 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

Yeah, but @Tippaporn already decreed fact checking websites to be __________ (fill in Trump supporters' nonsense here.).

That is why he is on ignore permanently!