Postmaster General Confident About Ability to Process Mail-In Ballot Papers

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has a message for America: The U.S. Postal Service is ready to handle an influx of election mail and is better positioned to do so than it was four years ago.

The Postal Service has undergone rapid changes, including the opening of major centers, but some of those changes are being put on hold ahead of the election to ensure they don’t hurt performance, DeJoy said. And all hands will be on deck to ensure millions of mail-in ballots are delivered quickly to their intended recipients.

“We’re going to be in great shape for the election. I’m pretty confident about everything we’re doing,” DeJoy told The Associated Press ahead of a formal rundown Thursday of election mail practices. “The American people should be confident.”

It’s a far cry from four years ago, when DeJoy, just months into his presidency, was criticized as a Trump accomplice who dismantled mail processing machines and removed blue mailboxes to undermine the election as then-president Trump sowed distrust in the Postal Service. Despite the criticism, DeJoy’s Postal Service has performed admirably amid a surge in mail-in voting during the pandemic.

If there is a lesson to be learned from this painful experience, he said, it is that the Postal Service needs to be bolder in its message.

“We have to do more than just make noise about how successful we are going to be and that everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine. We are in a better operational position than ever before,” he said.

U.S. Postal Service officials briefed reporters Thursday on the steps they are taking to ensure election mail gets to its destination, building on results from 2020, when 97.9% of ballots were returned to election officials within three days, and 2022, when 98.9% of election mail was delivered within three days. DeJoy said he would like to get closer to 100% this election cycle.

The lack of drama is a welcome relief from four years ago, when the Postal Service was plagued by delays and accusations of voter suppression ahead of the 2020 presidential election, in which more than 135 million ballots were delivered to and by voters.

DeJoy has been criticized for limiting overtime for postal workers and ending the agency’s longstanding practice of allowing late and extra truck deliveries in the summer of 2020. The planned dismantling of dozens of mail sorting machines and the removal of blue boxes, corresponding with a massive drop in first-class mail, have also fueled criticism. The postmaster general, who was a major Trump donor, was seen as walking a tightrope, particularly with the election of Democratic President Joe Biden.

“It was sensationalist. It terrified the American people,” DeJoy said.

Reflecting on that period, he said the accusations were “just crazy” and particularly frustrating as he worked seven days a week after taking over an organization that was going to run out of money in 60 days.

“We managed to overcome this ordeal. The organization was very efficient. After that, I started working with both sides. My main mission now is to improve this place. And we succeeded,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a frequent critic of DeJoy’s changes, said Thursday he was confident that Postal Service employees “will ensure that every ballot that is mailed is delivered securely.” But the Virginia Democrat also said oversight is important and that “Congress must remain vigilant about the decisions that the Postmaster General makes in the days leading up to this election.”

The Postal Service is pursuing a 10-year, $40 billion modernization plan that will see it renovate aging facilities, open modern regional centers in Georgia, Virginia, Oregon and elsewhere, and begin the process of purchasing 100,000 vehicles to replace aging delivery trucks that date back to 1987. The next-generation delivery vehicle was unveiled Thursday at a separate event in Indiana aimed at promoting the Postal Service’s investments.

The Postal Service also showed it could make adjustments when it scrapped a criticized plan to reroute mail processing from the Reno, Nevada, area to Sacramento, California, that had sparked an outcry among northern Nevadans.

If the public can do anything to help, DeJoy said, it would be to avoid procrastinating when it comes to mailing ballots. “Vote early! If you’re using the mail, help us out,” he said.