On Saturday morning, a big crowd of protesters staged a demonstration outside of United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s home in Northwest D.C. amid allegations of limiting mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 Presidential election.
The protestors gathered in Kalorama Park in Adams Morgan on the corner of Kalorama Road and 19th Street and marched towards DeJoy’s home. The protestors believe DeJoy is “dismantling” the U.S. Postal Service in favor of President Donald Trump’s re-election. They said his actions contribute to voter suppression. The demonstration was organized by the direct action group Shut Down D.C.
“DeJoy has fired or reassigned much of the existing USPS leadership and ordered the removal of mail sorting machines that are fundamental to the functioning of the postal service. Meanwhile, mail delivery is slowing down under other decisions made by DeJoy, such as eliminating overtime for postal workers,” the group said in a statement.
Video uploaded to Twitter shows some protesters stuffing fake absentee ballots into the Postmaster General’s apartment lobby door.
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The USPS recently sent letters of warning to 46 states, including Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, indicating that it could not guarantee all mail-in ballots cast for the November election would arrive in time to be counted. D.C. and six other states were told that only a specific set of voters may be affected, but Virginia and Maryland and 38 other states received a “heightened warning” that USPS could not meet state-mandated deadlines.
USPS officials “have warned they will run out of money by the end of September without help from Congress,” according to several news outlets.
In an interview on Fox Business Network, Donald Trump was frank about his intentions for stalling USPS funding proposals from the Democrats.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” Trump said. “That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting; they just can’t have it.”
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has donated to Trump and other Republicans, has said that the agency is in a financially untenable position, but he maintains it can handle this year’s election mail. The cost-cutting measures taken by USPS have led to mail delays across the country.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Government Operations, is calling for the resignation of DeJoy.
“Postmaster General DeJoy’s brief term has already become one of the darkest in USPS history,” Connolly said in a statement. “On the eve of a presidential election, in the midst of the worst public health pandemic in 100 years, Mr. DeJoy has pledged his allegiance to the political expedience of President Trump at the expense of protecting our democracy and access to the ballot. He has deliberately enacted policies to sabotage the Postal Service to serve only one person, President Trump. He has failed the American people. Mr. DeJoy must resign.”
DeJoy has not yet responded to Daily Boulder’s request for comment.
Protesters are making their way to the Postmaster General’s house for what they call a “wake-up call” pic.twitter.com/swK0CEboPv
— Kolbie Satterfield (@KolbieReports) August 15, 2020
The group has made it to the Postmaster General’s house in Northwest DC.
USPS has wanted 46 states they can’t guarantee delayed mail-in ballots will be counted. All this as accusations swirl the President is intentionally blocking funding for USPS. pic.twitter.com/dPWvqBWepm
— Kolbie Satterfield (@KolbieReports) August 15, 2020
Protesters have stuffed fake absentee ballots into the Postmaster General’s apartment lobby door @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/L5THngbLSv
— Kolbie Satterfield (@KolbieReports) August 15, 2020
