Charleston, W. Va.
The Dwelling Oversight Committee on Wednesday subpoenaed Postmaster In vogue Louis DeJoy for records about the novel mail transport delays that grasp pulled the Postal Service into the political highlight because it prepares to tackle an onslaught of ballots within the November election.
The subpoena, which seeks paperwork linked to operational changes that grasp slowed mail and the agency’s plans for the presidential election, comes after committee chair Derive. Carolyn Maloney said Mr. DeJoy has no longer sufficiently answered the panel’s requests for more data.
“It is a ways obvious that a subpoena has become main to extra the Committee’s investigation and wait on reveal likely legislative actions,” Ms. Maloney, D-N.Y., said this week.
Mr. DeJoy, a vital donor to Republicans and President Donald Trump, took over the agency in June after a career in logistics and save in motion a save of coverage changes that grasp delayed mail and sparked worry over the agency’s potential to direction of mail-in ballots this tumble.
He has seemed earlier than Congress twice in fresh weeks to testify about the elimination of the agency’s blue sequence boxes and mail sorting machines, as smartly as changes to trucking operations and beyond regular time hours that postal workers bid are resulting in delays. Amid a public outcry, Mr. DeJoy said he halted one of the most changes till after election.
Democrats grasp been pushing for elevated oversight of the Postal Service following Mr. DeJoy’s operational changes and Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that mail-in balloting will lead to novel fraud. The president has also admitted that he became withholding emergency money from the agency in reveal to invent it more sophisticated for the service to direction of what is expected to be a yarn different of mail-in ballots as a result of coronavirus pandemic.
The committee is also inquiring for data about how Mr. DeJoy, whose appointment broke a long line of postmaster generals with outdated abilities on the agency, became picked for the job, as smartly as any communications between Mr. DeJoy and the Trump marketing campaign.
Moreover it is a ways inquiring for Mr. DeJoy’s unredacted calendar alongside with records on likely communications with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White Dwelling Chief of Workers Model Meadows.
In a letter Friday to the committee, Mr. DeJoy said postal management has expanded a project force on election mail with native officers and said his staff became working to present the requested gives. He has said election mail is his “No. 1 priority,” and that he’ll authorize expanded exercise of beyond regular time, extra truck journeys, and other measures within the weeks earlier than the election to be certain on-time transport of ballots.
A spokesman for the Postal Service said the agency will regulate to its lawful tasks.
“We remain stunned and at a loss for phrases by Chairwoman Maloney’s insistence on issuing a subpoena to the Postal Service within the midst of ongoing dialogue with her staff on the Dwelling Committee on Oversight and Reform to develop data in an radiant vogue. We fully intend to conform with our tasks below the regulations,” the commentary learn.
The subpoena positioned a noon Sept. 16 deadline for Mr. DeJoy to present the records.
One after the other, an audit from the inspector classic of the Postal Service stumbled on that more than a million mail-in ballots grasp been despatched to voters unhurried at some level of the predominant elections. The watchdog urged greater cooperation between states and the agency sooner than the November election.
The yarn stumbled on say election boards despatched more than a million ballots inside of a week of their primaries, developing a “excessive likelihood” that they couldn’t be filled out and returned in time to be counted. In hundreds of conditions all one of many most life like ways by the country, ballots grasp been despatched out after states’ mailing reduce-off dates or on election day.
The inspector classic also known a handful of “concerns” surrounding election mail, including ballots despatched without bar-coded monitoring abilities, mail-in ballotdesigns that invent processing sophisticated, postmark requirements, and out-of-date voter addresses.
“Resolving these points will require greater stage partnerships and cooperation between the Postal Service and diversified say officers, including secretaries of say and say election boards,” the auditors wrote. “Smartly timed transport of election and political mail is extreme to be certain the integrity of the U.S. election direction of.”
The yarn stumbled on election officers in Kentucky and Fresh York despatched more than 600,000 mail-in ballots unhurried at some level of their primaries. In Pennsylvania, 500 ballots grasp been mailed after election day. Seventeen states despatched more than a half of-million ballots after mailing reduce-off dates, and 44,000 ballots grasp been mailed on or a day earlier than election day in 11 states. Also, an diagnosis of political and election mail in seven Postal Service processing facilities between April and June known round 1.6 million mailpieces that weren’t delivered on time.
The yarn did now not set in mind controversial operational changes utilized by Mr. DeJoy. The inspector classic’s location of job has opened a separate inquiry into these changes.
Mr. DeJoy has urged that voters inquire of absentee ballots no longer lower than 15 days earlier than the election and then return them inside of seven days from election day.
“To be certain, these ideas are designed to wait on be certain that ballots shall be delivered and counted, and ought to aloof in no system be misconstrued to indicate that we lack self assurance in our potential to ship these ballots. We can, and will, tackle the volume of election mail we receive,” Mr. DeJoy told the Dwelling Oversight committee final week.
This story became reported by The Associated Press.
