Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has been accused of botching the mail since he was nominated to be U.S. Postmaster General by Donald Trump’s administration. He was sometimes accused of intentionally messing up emails. Other times, he was accused of incompetence. Regardless, failure to deliver mail on time might be annoying under normal circumstances, but during election season it can have broader ramifications.
In 2020, the US Postmaster General was accused of launching a “politically motivated” attack to disrupt the mail ahead of the presidential election after DeJoy attempted to force changes to how mail was delivered. “While it may not necessarily be obvious on the surface, the core of DeJoy and the Postal Service’s conduct was the disenfranchisement of voters,” said federal judge Stanley Bastian, president of the U.S. District Court, who filed a petition An injunction to block DeJoy’s proposed changes. Bastian further called the move “an attempt by the current administration to undermine and challenge the legitimacy of the upcoming local, state and federal elections.”
Now, DeJoy is once again accused of potentially influencing the U.S. presidential election. An NBC News investigation said, “Some of the nation’s slowest mail speeds are in presidential battleground states with strict mail ballot delivery deadlines.” Those states plagued by poor USPS performance indicators include Georgia, North Carolina states and Wisconsin. Critics worry that slow mail speeds in these states could lead to large numbers of ballots going uncounted. In a tight presidential race, losing thousands of votes could have a crucial impact on the outcome.
For weeks, scores of government officials, both Democrats and Republicans, have been yelling at DeJoy and telling him to do a better job of making sure mail-in ballots are sent (and counted) on time to avoid casting doubt on the election. negative impact. Even Republicans aren’t backing down: “It’s a disgrace,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told NBC. “They need to understand the importance of [of election mail]they don’t need to make excuses anymore.
DeJoy even appeared to be responding to Trump’s negative rhetoric. After claiming in 2020 that mail-in voting was some kind of voter fraud conspiracy led by Democrats, Trump finally realized that mail-in ballots could help him and did a 180-degree turn on the approach. Recently, Trump has been claiming that the Postal Service cannot handle the processing of mail-in ballots. “I read the post office saying how bad it was,” Trump said in an interview with “Real America.” “The post office is criticizing itself and saying we’re in really bad shape. We can’t deliver the mail. They’re not even talking about mail-in ballots, right? We’re going to dump millions of dollars.
“My response is the same as my response to anyone who says we’re not ready for an election — they’re wrong,” DeJoy said recently in response to Trump’s accusations. “I don’t know that I need to comment any more. They’re wrong. Back in April, DeJoy promised that he would address the USPS’s speed issues, but it appears that has not yet been done.
Gizmodo reached out to DeJoy’s office for comment.
Sometimes it’s hard to say exactly why DeJoy is so bad at running the Postal Service. When Louis DeJoy was selected, he was criticized as the first postmaster general in decades with no formal experience working for the U.S. Postal Service. He also comes from the private sector and invests in postal contractors who stand to benefit from the dysfunction of the postal service. DeJoy has also been accused of wanting to privatize the Postal Service, making him similar to other Trump appointees who were appointed to lead agencies with what seemed like mismanagement in mind. One thing is for sure: Whether intentional or not, DeJoy is terrible at his job.
