June 27, 2024 11:25 a.m.
On Thursday, Senator Ron Wyden said he is leading Senate colleagues including Senator Jeff Merkley in calling on Postmaster General Dejoy and the U.S. Postal Service to share their plans to accommodate high volumes of mail expected in the upcoming 2024 general election in Oregon and nationwide.
The senators wrote, “In 2020, the Postal Service overcame a series of challenges, including the onset of a global pandemic, to fulfill this critical mission. Impressively it delivered 97.9 percent of ballots within three days, even as a record number of Americans voted by mail”. The senators letter said, “For the 2022 midterm elections, USPS maintained this standard of excellence and delivered 98.6 percent of ballots within three days”.
The release said in 2023, USPS began a series of mail processing facility reviews to consolidate the operations of regional processing and distributing centers through the Delivering for America plan. Wyden said that consolidation process could severely affect delivery times, especially in rural communities.
The letter continued, “In February 2024, USPS consolidated Oregon’s postal operations around an RP&DC in Portland. Despite USPS assurances that the consolidation would minimally affect residents, mail delays have already been reported in Southern Oregon. This area has a higher proportion of seniors and veterans compared to the national average, a group that heavily depends on USPS for medication, bill payments, and ballots, and cannot afford to experience any delays in service”.
The senators concluded, “We believe that the Postal Service remains well-equipped to securely deliver mail-in ballots. However, given the service disruptions, already resulting from the DFA plan, we fear the same approach adopted by USPS in 2020 and 2022 may not be sufficient to guarantee on-time delivery results”.
The letter was led by Wyden and Senator Peter Welch of Vermont. In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was signed by 16 other Democratic senators.
The full text of the letter is linked: https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_usps_on_election_mail_and_postal_consolidations.pdf