With less than 90 days until the 2020 election takes place, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is being accused of trying to sabotage mail deliver and lawmakers are calling for his ouster.
“DeJoy’s nefarious collective efforts will suppress millions of mail-in ballots and threaten the voting rights of millions of Americans, setting the stage for breach of our Constitution,” Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said in a statement over the weekend.
DeFazio accused DeJoy—a major GOP donor to Donald Trump with millions invested in USPS competitors—of doing the president’s bidding by sabotaging mail delivery with the November election less than 3 months away.
“DeJoy’s baseless operational changes have already crippled a beloved and essential agency, delaying mail, critical prescription drug shipments for veterans, and seniors and other essential goods,” said DeFazio.
Don't Miss
DeFazio went on to warn that the latest change imposed by DeJoy—the ouster of two top officials and reshuffling of nearly two dozen others—lay bare his “mission to centralize power, dismantle the agency, and degrade service in order to thwart vote-by-mail across the nation to aid Trump’s reelection efforts.”
“This November, a historic number of citizens will vote by mail in order to protect their health and safety during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said DeFazio. “DeJoy’s nefarious collective efforts will suppress millions of mail-in ballots and threaten the voting rights of millions of Americans, setting the stage for breach of our Constitution. It is imperative that we remove him from his post and immediately replace him with an experienced leader who is committed to sustaining a critical service for all Americans.”
As the American Prospect‘s David Dayen noted, the Postal Service under DeJoy’s leadership has also “informed states that they’ll need to pay first-class 55-cent postage to mail ballots to voters, rather than the normal 20-cent bulk rate.”
“That nearly triples the per-ballot cost at a time when tens of millions more will be delivered,” Dayen noted. “The rate change would have to go through the Postal Regulatory Commission and, undoubtedly, litigation. But the time frame for that is incredibly short, as ballots go out very soon. A side benefit of this money grab is that states and cities may decide they don’t have the money to mail absentee ballots, and will make them harder to get. Which is exactly the worst-case scenario everyone fears.”
Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) said in a statement issued alongside DeFazio’s that DeJoy is guilty of “unconstitutional sabotage of our Postal Service with complete disregard for the institution’s promise of the ‘safe and speedy transit of the mail’ and the ‘prompt delivery of its contents.’”
“My friend Maya Angelou used to say, ‘when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,’” Adams added. “The Postmaster General has shown us on multiple occasions he is working to dismantle a fundamental institution of our democracy. He needs to resign or be removed, now.”
Stop the mail delays! https://t.co/yNpCjHMdvx Tell your Senators to #SaveThePostOffice 844-402-1001
— APWU National (@APWUnational) August 8, 2020
The postmaster general must be called before Congress
Law enforcement must push back – this is crime – not politics@JillWineBanks: Horrifying threat to democracy. https://t.co/xQSc6kRfXY”
— John Cusack (@johncusack) August 8, 2020
RELATED: Mnuchin Suggests Taxpayers Must Pay Back COVID Money Unless Trump Is Reelected
