USPS Needs Monitor to Ensure Election Compliance, States Say
USPS Needs Monitor to Ensure Election Compliance, States Say
(Bloomberg) -- Six states that successfully sued Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over operational changes that threatened to undermine mail-in voting asked a judge to name a former U.S. Postal Service inspector general to make sure the agency complies with the court’s orders.
Led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the states said in a letter Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Gerald Austin McHugh in Philadelphia that David C. Williams, inspector general from 2003 to 2016, should be an independent monitor to ensure the USPS follows through on court-ordered commitments, including lifting a ban on late deliveries and employee overtime. The Postal Service opposes the request, according to court filings.
Williams, a critic of President Donald Trump, was also vice chair of the Postal Service Board of Governors from 2018 until 2020. In testimony before lawmakers in August, Williams said he resigned after it became clear DeJoy would be hired to lead the USPS and said that Trump aimed to use the postal agency as a “political tool.”
McHugh, who issued a nationwide injunction against the USPS changes in September, hasn’t yet decided whether to appoint a monitor.
Several other judges have issued injunctions against USPS, including one who said it was “easy to conclude” that changes implemented by DeJoy, a longtime Republican donor, were intended to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of the Nov. 3 election.
Trump has been an outspoken critic of mail-in voting, claiming without evidence that it will lead to widespread voter fraud.
The states argue in their letter that a monitor is needed because deliveries of first-class mail have declined almost 3% since the injunction was issued rather than returning to levels in July, when the changes started. The states also said the use of late and extra trips by USPS “is still at one-third to one-quarter of what it was prior to the illegal operational changes in July.”
DeJoy and the USPS “have offered no good reason as to why this number would still be so low, particularly given that they have been under order of this Court and a number of other courts to stop any prohibition on late/extra trips and have committed (and been ordered to commit) to authorizing and encouraging late trips for the delivery of Election Mail and other mail.”
The USPS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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