[ad_1]
Washington – After cost changes At the U.S. Postal Service, which has resulted in widespread delays in mail delivery, several states are considering legal action against the Trump administration that would prevent the agency from making operational changes in the run-up to the November election.
Michael Kelly, chief of staff to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, confirmed to CBS News that Herring’s office has spoken with attorneys general in several other states about potential legal options.
Herring said in a statement that state officials will ensure all votes are counted in November, whether they are cast by mail or in person.
“My colleagues and I are working right now to determine what Trump and DeJoy are doing, whether they have ever broken or are likely to break any laws, and what tools we have at our disposal to stop the continued attack on the President Trump against our postal service and our democracy, ”he said.
States and federal officials are rushing to shore up the Postal Service after its new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a GOP donor and ally of President Trump, implemented a series of operational changes intended to take the agency out of the country. cash strapped to the brink of bankruptcy. In addition to revamping the upper echelons of the Postal Service, DeJoy cut overtime and banned postal workers from making extra trips for late mail, resulting in mail delivery delays and a backlog of letters and packages.
The delays resulting from DeJoy’s operational changes come as many states expand postal voting for the November election in a bid to protect voters during the coronavirus pandemic. But Mr Trump has spent the last few weeks attacking postal voting, saying with little evidence that it incites voter fraud.
As the House passed a coronavirus relief package in May that would provide the postal service with $ 25 billion, and a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill to provide the agency with the same injection of money, talks between Democratic leaders and the White House over broader coronavirus relief measures have stalled.
Last week, the president acknowledged that depriving the Postal Service of further federal help would hurt efforts to expand postal voting, but then appeared to back down on the suggestion that he opposed an injection of help the agency in difficulty.
In anticipation of the influx of mail-in ballots expected for the November election, the Postal Service has warned 46 states that mail-in ballots may not be counted on time as their postal voting provisions are “incongruous” with post office delivery standards.
Concerned that millions of Americans could be disenfranchised by late ballots, Democratic leaders in both houses of Congress demanded that DeJoy and Robert Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, respond to the questions from the House Oversight Committee and Government Reform next week. on new agency policies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also summoned lawmakers to Washington early for a special session to vote on legislation that would prevent the Postal Service from continuing with changes in its operations.
[ad_2]
Source link