USPS ordered to stop slowdown
Lawsuit filed by state attorneys general accused Postal Service of political intent
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service and the administration of President Donald Trump to immediately stop instituting policies that may slow down mail service ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
The decision was spurred by a lawsuit filed against Trump and the Postal Service by state Attorney General Letitita James. Other petitioners in the case included state attorneys general from New Jersey and Hawaii and officials in San Francisco and New York City.
The lawsuit contends the Postal Service had made a series of policy changes ahead of the election, including reducing overtime for employees and removing machines that help collect, sort and circulate mail. The civil complaint accused the Trump administration of doing so intentionally as a political ploy to harm Democrats ahead of the November election, when an unprecedented number of Americans are expected to vote through the mail service due to the pandemic.
In testimony before a U.S. Senate committee last month, Postmaster General Louis De
Joy said that the allegations were false and that he had never discussed the postal system with the president — or been asked by anyone in his administration to slow down mail delivery. The mail-sorting machines were removed because there is significantly less volume in postmarked mail delivery and they are not needed, he added.
Dejoy said that the postal service has spent $700 million on overtime since he took over in May, and that the 13 percent rate of overtime, in place since before he became postmaster general, has not changed.
The plaintiffs in the case asked the federal judge for a preliminary injunction because of what they contend is the potential for immediate harm.
In this case, the potential harm was to voters and to the general public, which could see increased COVID -19 infection rates if more people decide to vote in person instead of by mail because they have less faith in the USPS. The judge granted the injunction Sunday.
“The president’s true intentions behind the Postal Service changes have been clear as day from the very beginning — to undermine the election in November,” James said in a news release following the court’s decision. “We will not stop doing everything in our power to uphold the rule of law and to protect our democracy, ensuring that all eligible voters who wish to cast a ballot in November can do so.”
The Postal Service has said repeatedly and publicly that it expects to be able to handle all election-related mail this fall.
Maureen Marion, a spokeswoman for USPS, told the Times Union in a recent statement that it plans on Oct. 1 to “engage additional resources, including transportation, as necessary, to help support the timely and expeditious handling of election mail.”
The spokeswoman said that election-related mail is expected to make up less than 2 percent of total USPS mail volume from mid- September to Nov. 3, and that the Postal Service delivers more than 433 million pieces of mail each day — more than if every American cast a ballot through USPS on the same day.