Accusing 74-year-old President Donald Trump of voter suppression, 80-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the House back in session to deal with a the U.S. Postal Service [USBS] budget shortfall, throwing a roadblock into Democrat plans for universal mail-in balloting for the Nov. 3 Presidential Election. Instead of dealing with longstanding mismanagement of the USPS, Pelosi accuses Trump of voter suppression for refusing to open up the Treasury to bailout the Post Office. Democrats accuse 63-year-old Trump donor U.S. Postmaster William DeJoy of deliberately sabotaging postal delivery, pulling up mailboxes, removing sorting machines and cutting overtime hours to suppress the vote Rumors have been flying about DeJoy ordering automated mail sorting machines shut down and postal boxes removed from neighborhoods needed for the Nov. 3 election.
Pelosi and her Democrat caucus passed the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act May 31, expecting Republicans to go along no matter what the damage to the National Debt and federal budget deficits. Republican economists fear that adding to the already astronomical National Debt now pushing $27 trillion would have negative consequences on future economic growth. In the HEROES Act, Pelosi wants to give the Postal Service $25 billion to bailout its current $8.8 billion deficit for fiscal 2020, running $77 billion in deficits over the last 13 years. “In a time of a pandemic, the Post Service is Election Central,” Pelosi wrote today to her House colleagues. “Lives, livelihoods, and the life of our American Democracy are under threat from the president,” Pelosi said, blaming Trump but not herself for failing to negotiate a realistic relief bill. Peslosi thinks throwing billions at the Post Office will save the election.
Trump couldn’t disagree more with Pelosi about how to run the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump expressed grave concerns about putting the onus on an already stretched Post Service, unable to handle even a primary race in New York state, where six weeks after the election there’s still no definite result. Trump sees that if Pelosi gets her way of universal mail-in ballots with the Postal Service guaranteeing timely delivery of ballots. Reports of thousands of ballots either lost or delayed in the New York primary doesn’t bode well if Democrats push for universal mail-in ballots thinking it’s the best way to encourage high voter turnout “Given recent customer service concerns the Postal Service will postpone removing boxes for a period of 90 days while we evaluate our customers’ concerns” said Postal Service spokeswoman Kimberly Frun.
Pelsoi hopes to pass legislation “Delivering for America,” requiring the Post Service to provide at the same level of service agreed to Jan. 1. Trump said he was reluctant to give the Postal Service the $25 billion requested or the extra $3.6 billion proposed in the HEROES Act. Trump was at odds with Pelosi over her $3.4 trillion request to fund the USPS fully but, more importantly, gives cities, counties and states the capital needed to make up massive budget deficits from economic lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus. Trump’s wanted to negotiate but Pelosi has said “take it or leave it,” if he doesn’t accept the entire $3.4 trillion in the HEROES Act. “What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting . . .” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), one of Trump biggest critics.
Sanders or other Democrats have no clue what universal mail-in balloting will do to the integrity of the vote. Instead of extending voting deadlines and time periods, Democrats think that depending the Postal Service is the best way to preserve the integrity of the vote. Judging by what happened on a much smaller scale in New York State, universal mail-in voting could delay-and-distort the results indefinitely. Pelosi thinks throwing billions at the Post Service will reverse voter suppression—in fact the opposite might happen. Bernie likes to rip Trump but he’s no expert in voter suppression or anything else, promising that universal mail-in ballots will help Democrats this fall. If the Postal Service implodes, loses millions of ballots or can find a way to count them, it won’t help Democrats or Republicans.
Whatever Trump thinks about the potential for fraud with universal mail-in ballots, the real problems doesn’t involve fraud but gross incompetence and mismanagement by the Post Service, overwhelmed and not up to the task of handling mail-in ballots around the country. Whatever the risks of Covid-19, instead of reinventing voting, it would be far better for both parties to extend voting to two-or-three days, giving people plenty of time to vote with appropriate social distancing guidelines. There’s no reason in the age of Covdi-19 the government can’t extend polls opening for two full days, allowing all citizens to vote by absentee or in polling places just like it’s been done in every U.S. election. Advocates of universal mail-in ballots don’t have any idea how such a plan would actually work, potentially hurting both Democrats and Republicans in the Nov. 3 election.
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