New postmaster general overhauls USPS leadership amid probe into mail delays

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced an overhaul of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) on Friday, removing the top two officials in charge of day-to-day operations as Democrats in Washington call for an investigation into changes that have slowed mail delivery. According to a new organizational chart released by USPS, 23 postal executives were reassigned or displaced and five staffers joined the agency’s leadership from other positions. “This organizational change will capture operating efficiencies by providing clarity and economies of scale that will allow us to reduce our cost base and capture new revenue,” said DeJoy. “It is crucial that we do what is within our control to help us successfully complete our mission to serve the American people and, through the universal service obligation, bind our nation together by maintaining and operating our unique, vital and resilient infrastructure.”

DeJoy announced there would be a hiring freeze and a request for voluntary early retirements. The USPS will also configure itself into three “operating units” of retail and delivery, logistics and processing, and commerce and business solutions and will cut back from seven regions to four. The reshuffling comes as Democrats clamor for an investigation into USPS amid concerns over the agency’s ability to handle what is expected to be a flood of mail-in ballots this year. Lawmakers have warned that changes DeJoy has made, including reducing overtime and adjusting delivery policies, may leave the agency even more unprepared. “We believe these changes, made during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, now threaten the timely delivery of mail — including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers, and absentee ballots for voters — that is essential to millions of Americans. While it is true that the Postal Service has and continues to face financial challenges, enacting these policies as cost-cutting or efficiency measures as the COVID-19 public health emergency continues is counterproductive and unacceptable,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to DeJoy on Thursday.

The efforts to cut cost are in part an effort to dig USPS out of the steep financial hole it finds itself in; DeJoy announced Friday that the USPS lost $2.2 billion in the second quarter of the year and could in total shed about $20 billion overall in 2019 and 2020. The agency has suffered a heavy financial toll during the coronavirus pandemic, with steep drops in first-class and business mail. “Our financial position is dire, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, a broken business model and a management strategy that has not adequately addressed these issues,” he said in remarks to the USPS Board of Governors on Friday. “Without dramatic change, there is no end in sight, and we face an impending liquidity crisis.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/511138-new-postmaster-general-overhauls-usps-leadership-amid-probe-into-mail

Liberal group sends masses of mail-in ballot applications to voters — many with errors, peeving election officials

A liberal political organization is sending hundreds of thousands of mail-in and absentee ballot applications to voters across the country in an apparent attempt to promote the voting method in states not automatically mailing the ballot applications themselves. The “potentially misleading” mailings, which contain legitimate ballot applications but at first glance appear to many recipients to be from an official government source, have confused voters and peeved election officials. Contrary to the organization’s own goal, it has repeatedly sent voters incorrect information. This week, hundreds of thousands of mailers in Virginia had incorrect election office addresses on prepaid return envelopes. Earlier in the summer, it sent thousands of North Carolina voters forms that were invalid because the group had partially filled them out. And in previous years, dead people and pets received voter registration forms from the group. The Center for Voter Information, a 501(c)4 nonprofit advocacy organization, is responsible for the mail-in ballot applications, along with an affiliate 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organization called the Voter Participation Center that is also sending mass numbers of ballot applications. Together, they say they have sent 800,000 mail-in ballot applications to voters across the country, aiming to “empower” eligible voters with a focus on the “Rising American Electorate” of unmarried women, people of color, and young voters.

Page Gardner, who is a veteran of Democratic campaigns, is the founder of the group. When the Center for Voter Information has spent on specific election activities reportable to the Federal Elections Commission, it did so in favor of Democratic candidates and in opposition to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. NextGen Climate, an advocacy group founded and funded by Democratic billionaire donor and ex-presidential candidate Tom Steyer, gave more than $422,000 to the Center for Voter Information in June. The partially pre-filled out Virginia applications came along with a letter that touted the benefits of the voting method — “the best way to protect yourself, your family, and your whole community during this time is to vote by mail” — and included a bar graph comparing the voter’s electoral participation rate to that of all voters.

But due to a "programming error," voters in several cities that share a name with a county and vice versa were sent ballots with incorrect return addresses on the prepaid envelope: Fairfax City, Fairfax County, and the cities and counties of Franklin, Richmond, and Roanoke. “Approximately half a million applications sent to eligible voters in Virginia included incorrect information, and we are working diligently to address the issues,” a spokesperson for Center for Voter Information told the Washington Examiner. “We know that voters are on high alert as the November election approaches, and we regret adding to any confusion.” It plans to work with local officials to direct the applications to their proper locations and “rectify any errors at our own expense.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/liberal-group-sends-masses-of-mail-in-ballot-applications-to-voters-many-with-errors-peeving-election-officials