USPS says it will stop removing collection boxes for 90 days

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USPS had faced strong criticism for the dismissals as there is expected to be a surge in people sending out their ballots instead of going to the polls in this presidential election.

“In light of recent customer concerns, the Postal Service will postpone the removal of boxes for a period of 90 days while we assess our customers’ concerns,” USPS spokeswoman Kim Frum said in a statement. communicated to CNN.

Frum said USPS annually examines the amount of different boxes used to “identify redundant / infrequently used collection boxes as the volume of first class mail continues” to decline.

“Based on the density tests, boxes are identified for potential withdrawal and notices are placed on the boxes to give customers the opportunity to comment before the withdrawal decision is made. This process is the process. one of the many ways the postal services are adapting our infrastructure to match our resources with declining mail volumes, ”Frum also said in the release.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said earlier Sunday that the USPS would not dismantle any mail sorting machines by election day.

“Sorting machines by election day will not be taken offline,” Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Chris Bentley, president of Local 297 of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that the postal branch has already removed four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri. , and a machine in Wichita. , Kansas.

Meadows told CNN it was not part of a new initiative but part of a pre-planned reassignment.

Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated that 671 machines used to organize letters or other mail are expected to be “cut back” in dozens of cities this year.

The USPS ‘own document called the move a “downsizing” in equipment.

With slower mail and election issues, Trump’s Postmaster General is in the hot seat

A letter sent Wednesday from the National Union of Postal Handlers to Postal Service Headquarters asked, “Why are these machines being removed?”

The Postal Service, mired in long-standing funding issues, on Friday warned nearly all 50 states and Washington, DC, that mail-in ballots may not be received by polling stations in time to be counted.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s administration has slowed delivery, removed high-speed letter sorters from the commission, and issued a stern warning to election officials that mailed ballots will no longer automatically be moved as mail priority. On top of that, the USPS has started slashing post office hours in several states, slashing postman overtime, and removing some of their iconic blue mailboxes.

In the wake of what DeJoy calls “restructuring,” the agency’s inspector general is now reviewing these policy changes. Democrats are increasing demands that DeJoy reverse his changes and prepare the agency for the flood of mail-in ballots required by the pandemic.
House Democrats said on Sunday they were “stepping up” their investigation into the USPS and that Democratic leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called DeJoy and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Postal Service, Robert Duncan, to testify.

The leaders said in a statement that they wanted officials to appear at a hearing on Aug. 24 to discuss what they call “the recent, sweeping and dangerous operational changes to the postal service that are slowing mail and endangering mail. ‘integrity of the election’.

CNN’s Marshall Cohen, Curt Devine, and Bob Ortega contributed to this story.

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