Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said that the Postal Service will be able to deliver ballots in time to be counted in the Nov. 3 election, rejecting claims by Democrats that he is working with President Trump to thwart the process.
“I’m very, very confident,” DeJoy told lawmakers Friday during a virtual Senate oversight hearing led by Republicans.
DeJoy said he votes by mail himself and anticipates that the Postal Service will be able to deliver the mail on time.
“I am going to vote by mail,” DeJoy said. “I have voted by mail for a number of years.”
The Postal Service legal team warned 46 states that on-time postmarking of ballots could be in jeopardy if they are received too close to the election.
The threat drew criticism from Democrats who said it underscores their fear that President Trump is trying to undermine mail-in balloting. Trump said he supports absentee balloting but not mass mail-in balloting because it has fewer safeguards and raises the risk of voter fraud.
DeJoy said the warning to states was to point out “all the different variations that we could experience and how fast we could process it.”
DeJoy said that “it’s almost impossible” for the Postal Service to get a ballot postmarked on time if ballots are sent to voters a day before the election.
“So, this was a very, very well-thought-out effort to safeguard the processing of ballots in the election, not to get in a way,” DeJoy said.
Mail-in balloting will be used on an unprecedented scale this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. A New York Times analysis determined that at least three-quarters of voters will be eligible to receive a mail-in ballot for the November election.
DeJoy said he has ordered the Postal Service to stop long-planned changes that would reduce hours or equipment and instead called on employees to ramp up efforts to make sure ballots are processed.
“I instructed the organization, the whole team around us, ‘Whatever efforts we have, double them,’” DeJoy said. “I was greatly concerned with all the political noise we were hearing. We are very committed, the postal board, the union leadership, is committed to having a successful election.”
