Election officials warn that widespread problems with the US mail system could disrupt voting
Election officials warn that widespread problems with the US mail system could disrupt voting
Election officials across the U.S. are warning that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election.
State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the U.S. Postal Service that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.
In an alarming letter, the officials said that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.
Still absolutely baffled and kinda furious that Biden has been content to continue letting DeJoy shit all over the USPS and actively prevent it from delivering and returning ballots in a timely manner all over the fucking country. Like seriously, for fuck’s sake, DeJoy is a fox in the henhouse, and he’s been having chicken fuckin’ dinner for four fucking years. Fucking DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. CHRIST.
De-ratfucking everything that Dejoy did should have been a priority for this administration on day one.
The Associated Press chooses not to discuss the small fact that DeJoy was appointed to destroy the USPS.
Can we impeach of postmaster general?
The Board of Governors can remove the Postmaster General with a vote.
USC Title 39, Section 202: "(c) The Governors shall appoint and shall have the power to remove the Postmaster General, who shall be a voting member of the Board. His pay and term of service shall be fixed by the Governors."
In Washington State (where most voting is done by mail) it doesn't matter when officials receive your ballot, all that matters is that it's postmarked by election day. This does mean that any race that's even remotely close can take days to call (as ballots continue to arrive days after election day), but you never have to worry about how long the post office is going to take to get your ballot delivered.
In neighboring Oregon on the other hand (also primarily mail-in voting) they won't count your ballot if it's not received by election day, so every election they have to throw out stacks of otherwise legitimate ballots just because the voter either underestimated how long it would take for them to arrive, or because all they heard was "XX is election day" and didn't know to consider mailing time.
I think Washington's system is superior, and should be how it's done everywhere. Washington also has same-day registration for the super-procrastinators! Literally no excuse to not vote here.
Fellow Washingtonian, transplanted from the opposite coast, can confirm our voting system is outstanding.
If you have the option, fill out the mail in ballot at home, but then bring it into an official ballot drop off location.
This is by design. The Republicans have been working on this since the last election.
By design. Why Biden didn’t oust Louis Dejoy I will never understand.
So, an actual answer if you're interested.
No, the President does not have the power to remove him. When the Post Office was reformed into USPS in the 1970's, the selection of Postmaster General is made by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service. These board members have 7 year terms, and are appointed by the President, with Senate approval.
The Postmaster General has no fixed term, and serves until the Board decides otherwise.
There are 9 members of the Board, and no more than 5 can be from the same party. The Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General are also voting members of the Board, though there are some things they can't vote on.
Removing requires an absolute majority - so even though a quorum is 6, there needs to be 5 votes to remove DeJoy.
No member of the Board can serve more than 2 terms, and they can't be removed without a gross violation - misconduct for example.
So despite the spongebob meme reference reply near mine, no, Biden can't just remove DeJoy.
I think it’s pretty fucking clear that letting a postmaster general intentionally destroy and disrupt the USPS is a gross violation and obvious misconduct. It’s like if I just started deleting repos and databases and service clusters and backups at my job. I’d be fired for cause immediately. The fact that they don’t means they must be on the take, in one way or another.
Thanks for the reply. I’m pretty sure I read that some of the board has already been replaced by Biden, but it sounds like it’s still not enough to oust this jackass. What a mess.
there needs to be 5 votes to remove DeJoy.
Five Biden appointees are now serving on the board, and have been since 2022. If Biden wanted DeJoy gone, he would be gone because Biden would've picked appointees who opposed him. Clearly, that didn't happen, so clearly, Biden doesn't actually care as much as we want him to.
I don't think people are being duped, they just don't understand the concept of shifting the Overton window.
This ratcheting image is way easier for mechanically inclined people to understand. Hope it catches on.
It's a Good Thing Biden dealt with the Culprit behind all this- Dejoy! By letting him Keep his Job with no Investigations into his Conflicts whatsoever!
Biden doesn't have the authority to remove him
What's with the strange random capitalizations
Biden has appointed the majority of the postal board at this point. If he wanted DeJoy gone, he'd be gone.
He chose to appoint more DeJoy supporters instead.
Edit: some folks are butthurt and downvoting facts. The fact is that five of the nine presidential appointees on the USPS board have been Biden picks since 2022, and he's made two more nominations two months ago that haven't been confirmed yet. The fact is that DeJoy only persists because Biden appointees Anton Hajjar, Amber McReynolds, Ron Stroman, Dan Tangherlini, and Derek Kan apparently approve of him.
I hope that is fixed. I voted by mail before.
