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Eric
Severson
holds a
sign as
a few
dozen
people
gather
in front
of the
United
States
Post
Office
on Rodd
St. to
protest
recent
changes
to the
U.S.
Postal
Service
under
new
Postmaster
General
Louis
DeJoy
Tuesday,
Aug. 11,
2020 in
Midland,
Mich.
(Katy
Kildee/Midland
Daily
News via
AP)
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Trump
admits
he's
blocking
postal
cash to
stop
mail-in
votes
By
DEB
RIECHMANN
and
ANTHONY
IZAGUIRRE
apnews.com
WASHINGTON
-
President
Donald
Trump
frankly
acknowledged
Thursday
that
he’s
starving
the U.S.
Postal
Service
of money
in order
to make
it
harder
to
process
an
expected
surge of
mail-in
ballots,
which he
worries
could
cost him
the
election.
In
an
interview
on Fox
Business
Network,
Trump
explicitly
noted
two
funding
provisions
that
Democrats
are
seeking
in a
relief
package
that has
stalled
on
Capitol
Hill.
Without
the
additional
money,
he said,
the
Postal
Service
won’t
have the
resources
to
handle a
flood of
ballots
from
voters
who are
seeking
to avoid
polling
places
during
the
coronavirus
pandemic.
“If
we don’t
make a
deal,
that
means
they
don’t
get the
money,”
Trump
told
host
Maria
Bartiromo.
“That
means
they
can’t
have
universal
mail-in
voting;
they
just
can’t
have
it.”
Trump’s
statements,
including
the
false
claim
that
Democrats
are
seeking
universal
mail-in
voting,
come as
he is
searching
for a
strategy
to gain
an
advantage
in his
November
matchup
against
Joe
Biden.
He’s
pairing
the
tough
Postal
Service
stance
in
congressional
negotiations
with an
increasingly
robust
mail-in-voting
legal
fight in
states
that
could
decide
the
election.
In
Iowa,
which
Trump
won
handily
in 2016
but is
more
competitive
this
year,
his
campaign
joined a
lawsuit
Wednesday
against
two
Democratic-leaning
counties
in an
effort
to
invalidate
tens of
thousands
of
voters’
absentee
ballot
applications.
That
followed
legal
maneuvers
in
battleground
Pennsylvania,
where
the
campaign
hopes to
force
changes
to how
the
state
collects
and
counts
mail-in
ballots.
And in
Nevada,
Trump is
challenging
a law
sending
ballots
to all
active
voters.
His
efforts
could
face
limits.
The U.S.
Supreme
Court on
Thursday
rebuffed
Republicans
who
challenged
an
agreement
in Rhode
Island
allowing
residents
to vote
by mail
through
November’s
general
election
without
getting
signatures
from two
witnesses
or a
notary.
For
Democrats,
Trump’s
new
remarks
were a
clear
admission
that the
president
is
attempting
to
restrict
voting
rights.
Biden
said it
was
“Pure
Trump.
He
doesn’t
want an
election.”
Colorado
Secretary
of State
Jena
Griswold
said it
was ”
voter
suppression
to
undermine
the
safest
method
to vote
during a
pandemic,
and
force
Americans
to risk
their
lives to
vote.”
Negotiations
over a
big new
virus
relief
package
have all
but
ended,
with the
White
House
and
congressional
leaders
far
apart on
the
size,
scope
and
approach
for
shoring
up
households,
reopening
schools
and
launching
a
national
strategy
to
contain
the
coronavirus.
While
there is
some
common
ground
over
$100
billion
for
schools
and new
funds
for
virus
testing,
Democrats
also
want
other
emergency
funds
that
Trump
rejects.
“They
want
$3.5
billion
for
something
that
will
turn out
to be
fraudulent.
That’s
election
money,
basically,”
Trump
said
during
Thursday’s
call-in
interview.
Democrats
have
pushed
for a
total of
$10
billion
for the
Postal
Service
in talks
with
Republicans
on the
COVID-19
response
bill.
That
figure,
which
would
include
money to
help
with
election
mail, is
down
from a
$25
billion
plan in
a
House-passed
coronavirus
measure.
Postmaster
General
Louis
DeJoy
has said
that the
agency
is in a
financially
untenable
position,
but he
maintains
it can
handle
this
year’s
election
mail. A
major
donor to
Trump
and
other
Republicans,
DeJoy is
the
first
postmaster
general
in
nearly
two
decades
who is
not a
career
postal
employee.
“Although
there
will
likely
be an
unprecedented
increase
in
election
mail
volume
due to
the
pandemic,
the
Postal
Service
has
ample
capacity
to
deliver
all
election
mail
securely
and
on-time
in
accordance
with our
delivery
standards,
and we
will do
so,” he
told the
Postal
Service’s
governing
board
last
week.
Memos
obtained
by The
Associated
Press
show
that
Postal
Service
leadership
has
pushed
to
eliminate
overtime
and halt
late
delivery
trips
that are
sometimes
needed
to
ensure
mail
arrives
on time,
measures
that
postal
workers
and
union
officials
say are
delaying
service.
Additional
records
detail
cuts to
hours at
post
offices,
including
reductions
on
Saturdays
and
during
lunch
hours.
Democrats,
and a
handful
of
Republicans,
have
sent
DeJoy
several
letters
asking
him to
reverse
his
changes
and
criticizing
what
they say
is a
lack of
openness
by the
agency.
Late
Wednesday,
Senate
Democrats
again
wrote
DeJoy,
this
time
saying
postal
leadership
is
pushing
state
election
officials
to opt
for
pricier
first-class
postage
for
mail-in
ballots
to be
prioritized.
“Instead
of
taking
steps to
increase
your
agency’s
ability
to
deliver
for the
American
people,
you are
implementing
policy
changes
that
make
matters
worse,
and the
Postal
Service
is
reportedly
considering
changes
that
would
increase
costs
for
states
at a
time
when
millions
of
Americans
are
relying
on
voting
by mail
to
exercise
their
right to
vote,”
the
Democrats
wrote.
Separately,
in a
letter
last
month,
the
Postal
Service
warned
Michigan
Secretary
of State
Jocelyn
Benson
that the
agency
might
not be
able to
deliver
ballots
in time
to be
counted
under
the
state’s
deadlines
for
casting
mail-in
votes.
Postal
Service
spokesman
David
Partenheimer
said in
a
statement
that
“certain
deadlines
concerning
mail-in
ballots,
may be
incompatible
with the
Postal
Service’s
delivery
standards,”
especially
if
election
officials
don’t
pay more
for
first-class
postage.
“To
the
extent
that
states
choose
to use
the mail
as part
of their
elections,
they
should
do so in
a manner
that
realistically
reflects
how the
mail
works,”
he said.
In a
memo to
staff
Thursday,
DeJoy
said his
policies
have
brought
“unintended
consequences
that
impacted
our
overall
service
levels,”
but
added
that the
Postal
Service
“must
make a
number
of
significant
changes
which
will not
be easy,
but
which
are
necessary.”
“This
will
increase
our
performance
for the
election
and
upcoming
peak
season
and
maintain
the high
level of
public
trust we
have
earned
for
dedication
and
commitment
to our
customers
throughout
our
history,”
DeJoy
wrote,
according
to the
memo
obtained
by the
AP.
Judy
Beard,
legislative
and
political
director
for the
American
Postal
Workers
Union,
said
postal
workers
are up
to the
task of
delivering
mail-in
ballots
this
year.
“We
definitely
know
that the
president
is
absolutely
wrong
concerning
vote-by-mail,”
she
said.
Rep.
Gerry
Connolly,
D-Va.,
chair of
the
House
subcommittee
on
government
operations,
said
Trump is
acknowledging
that he
wants to
hold up
funding
for the
U.S.
Postal
Service
to
hinder
Americans
from
voting.
“The
president
admits
his
motive
for
holding
USPS
funding
hostage
is that
he
doesn’t
want
Americans
to vote
by
mail,”
Connolly
said in
a
statement
Thursday.
“Why? It
hurts
his
electoral
chances.
He’s
putting
self-preservation
ahead of
public
safety,
for an
election
he
deserves
to
lose.”
Trump
has
requested
a
mail-in
ballot
for
Florida’s
primary
election
Tuesday.
Ballots
were
mailed
Wednesday
to both
the
president
and
first
lady
Melania
Trump at
the
Mar-a-Lago
resort,
which
Trump
lists as
his
legal
address,
according
to
online
Palm
Beach
County
elections
records.
Both
voted by
mail in
the
presidential
preference
primary
in
March,
according
to
records.
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