The U.S. Postal Service’s in-house investigator will read about the new questionable policy adjustments at the USPS, as well as whether republican donor-turned-post general manager Louis DeJoy complied with ethics rules.
CNN first reported the investigation Friday when alarms sounded across the country about whether the USPS could take over mail-in ballot entry in November.
“We have pictures to address the considerations raised, but we can’t comment on the details,” a USPS inspector general’s workplace spokesman told CNN.
The investigation comes after several Democratic lawmakers last week called for an investigation into recent adjustments to the USPS. Among other things, new USPS practices that restrict and additional mail processing trips have slowed mail delivery and jeopardized the 2020 election, Democrats say.
DeJoy’s money ties have been a concern: the Republican fundraiser still has an eight-figure stake in his former company, a USPS competitor, XPO Logistics, CNN reported earlier. In June, after starting out as general manager of publications, DeJoy purchased inventory features on Amazon, CNN noted.
News of the inspector general’s investigation capped a chaotic week for the postal service: Pennsylvania officials said Thursday in a court record that the firm had warned them that they might not deliver the ballots on Election Day, resulting in deprivation of the right to vote. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that the USPS had sent similar warnings to forty-five other states and to the District of Columbia.
In Montana, Senator John Tester (D-MT) demanded responses from DeJoy regarding the removal of mailboxes in the state, after NBC Montana reported on the removal of dozens of deposit boxes from Missoula, Bozeman, Lewistown and Billings.
Images appearing in truck-loaded delivery boxes in Oregon and New York triggered an alarm, USPS spokesmen said the movements were the result of popular maintenance or testing in low-traffic areas.
“USPS stays on a normal schedule,” a USPS spokesman in New York told TPM after a New York Times reporter took a photo of Manhattan delivery boxes in the back of a USPS truck.
Nationwide, according to a complaint by the USPS Workers’ Union, the USPS has disposed of mail sorting machines to a extent that, according to union leaders, can particularly reduce the ability of postal workers to classify mail.
Then there’s the president, who this week connected $25 billion in proposed investment for USPS, which he said he opposed, to the agency’s ability to deliver mail effectively.
“They don’t have cash to vote by universal mail,” the president said at a news convention at the White House on Wednesday. “Therefore, I suppose you can’t do it. Isn’t that right?”
The postmen took him.
“For years, every time there’s an election, we spent a lot of time digging into [mail containers] to make sure we get all the ballots,” a Michigan mail clerk told Mother Jones. “It doesn’t seem like they’ve been worried this year.”