WASHINGTON – United States Postal Secretary Louis DeJoy testified before Congress on Thursday that voters can “absolutely” have confidence that their mail-in ballots are secure and prioritized, but stressed that they must be received at least a week ahead of the various deadlines States shipped must be delivered on time.
DeJoy’s testimony to House lawmakers became heated at times, as members questioned whether delays in general mail delivery and previous problems with mail-in ballots in swing states could cause voters to lose their right to vote this year.
DeJoy also questioned the USPS facilities, calling them “shabby” twice during the year hours of hearing.
His various comments about the administration of the USPS and how the agency plans to handle election mail appeared to frustrate some members of the House Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee.
For example, in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin about the pace of mail delivery in his home state, DeJoy replied that “the first rockets that went to the moon exploded, okay.”
Pocan then said, “Thanks for blowing up Wisconsin,” before DeJoy gave a longer response.
“As we move forward, we will make a number of transaction adjustments as well as service measurement and service metrics adjustments that will ensure your service is 95% reliable,” DeJoy said.
Millions of ballots by mail
The hearing came at a time when state officials across the country were preparing to send out or have already sent out millions of mail-in ballots that could well decide the results of congressional and possibly even the presidential election.
Mail-in voting surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as a central component of the 2020 presidential election and remains a popular way for voters to decide who represents their interests in government.
Voters can also cast their votes in person during early voting and on Election Day.
Many of their questions during the hearing focused on how the USPS keeps mail-in ballots secure and whether the agency can deliver them on time, although several members expressed frustration with DeJoy’s plans to change operations at the USPS.
Asked specifically whether Americans could trust USPS to process their election mail, DeJoy replied: “Absolutely.”
“I don’t know why you wouldn’t do that,” he testified. “We delivered in the heightened part of a pandemic, in the most politically sensitive time of elections, and … we delivered 99 percent of the time, no matter what percentage I mentioned earlier.”
DeJoy previously said that USPS delivered 99.89% of mail-in ballots within seven days during the 2020 election.
DeJoy wrote in testimony provided to the committee before the hearing that not all state laws take the speed of the USPS into account when deciding when voters can request mail-in ballots and when they will be mailed.
“For example, in some jurisdictions, voters may request an absentee ballot shortly before Election Day,” he wrote. “Depending on when that ballot is mailed to the voter, it may be physically impossible for that voter to receive the ballot mail, complete their ballot, and return their ballot by mail in a timely manner to meet the jurisdiction’s deadline, even with our extraordinary measures .” and that despite all efforts.”
“I see horror”
DeJoy brought up the condition of the USPS facilities himself at several points during the hearing, suggesting that they were not pristine or meeting his standards as a work environment.
“When I go into our factories and facilities, I see horror. “My employees see a normal workday,” DeJoy said.
Asked whether USPS workers had the appropriate training to process and deliver mail-in ballots in a timely manner, DeJoy responded that leadership had “overwhelmingly improved our training” before disparaging the facilities.
“We are on a daily mission to train over 600,000 people at 31,000 run-down locations on how to improve our operations across the board, and particularly at this time in the area of election mail,” he testified. “We’re doing it very well, but not perfectly.”
No member of the panel asked DeJoy to clarify what he meant by “shabby,” nor did he address it when he separately said he was “sitting on about $20 billion in cash.”
A USPS spokesman said he had nothing to add to DeJoy’s characterization when asked about the “shabby” comment from States Newsroom.
“If you are listening to the hearing, you just heard him further describe the state of postal facilities,” Martha S. Johnson wrote in an email sent shortly after DeJoy’s “horror” comment. “I have nothing to add.”
Deliveries for Rural Americans
Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Matt Cartwright questioned DeJoy during the hearing about how plans to “consolidate resources in regions with higher population densities” under the so-called Delivering for America plan will overall impact delivery times for rural residents.
DeJoy disagreed with the premise of the question, saying he thought it was “an unfair accusation given the terms under which the Postal Service was permitted.”
DeJoy said the USPS has committed to a six-day-a-week delivery schedule and promised that it would take no longer than five days for mail to arrive.
“It won’t take more than five days because I’ll get it in the air and fly it if I have to,” DeJoy said.
Cartwright mentioned that 1.4 million Pennsylvania residents requested absentee ballots in the 2022 midterm elections, a number he said will augment this year.
The Commonwealth has numerous competitive U.S. House districts, a competitive U.S. Senate race and is considered a crucial swing state for the presidential election. Several of these races were determined by mail-in ballots that arrived on time.
Republican Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, chairman of the subcommittee, asked DeJoy about problems with the regional sorting facility in Cleveland during the 2023 election. The secretary of state, Joyce said, found that some mail-in ballots mailed as early as Oct. 24 only arrived on November 21st.
“These voters are disenfranchised because of the failures of the USPS,” Joyce said. “How specifically have you improved the clarification procedures you referred to in response to the National Association of Secretaries of State? And can you assure us that these procedures will ensure that this does not happen in this upcoming election?”
DeJoy responded that he would “need the details from Cleveland,” but said that USPS procedures were “extremely improved.”
Georgia’s main problems
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who is not on the panel, asked DeJoy a question about how a fresh regional processing and distribution center in Atlanta was “negatively” impacting mail delivery just weeks before the Republican presidential primary this year.
DeJoy said the USPS is investing more than $500 million in the region but acknowledged, “What happened in Georgia was an embarrassment to the organization, OK, and it shouldn’t have happened.”
“We are aggressively correcting this,” DeJoy said. “Especially with regard to the primaries, we got through that because I put a whole bunch of people there and put a whole bunch of double-checking procedures in place.”
DeJoy added that “election mail performance for Georgia was good” and that USPS would deliver Georgia mail-in ballots “quite well” in the coming weeks.
