WASHINGTON _ Spurred by fears that President Donald Trump is trying to eviscerate the U.S. Postal Service to help him win reelection, House Democrats demanded Sunday that the nation's postmaster general testify next Monday at an emergency hearing on widespread cutbacks in mail service before the Nov. 3 election.
With tens of millions of mail-in ballots expected during the coronavirus pandemic, worsening mail delays, shorter post office hours and greater service disruptions have raised alarms about potential voter disenfranchisement and political chaos around the country after polls close.
Although Congress is on recess until after Labor Day, House Democrats called Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor who was appointed the top postal official in May, to appear before an "urgent" hearing of the House Oversight Committee on Aug. 24, and to hand over documents on recent cost-cutting moves and staffing changes that are widely blamed for the mail backups.
DeJoy "has acted as an accomplice in the president's campaign to cheat in the election," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., who chairs the committee, said in a joint statement Sunday. Pelosi earlier had said she also may call the House back into session to take up postal service legislation.
Attorneys general from at least six states huddled over the weekend to discuss possible lawsuits against the Trump administration to block it from cutting mail service between now and the election, The Washington Post reported, while state elections officials scrambled to see if they could give voters more options.
The long-simmering crisis boiled over on Thursday when Trump said he would reject a Democratic proposal to funnel $25 billion in extra funding to the USPS to help with the expected deluge of mail-in ballots even though the agency's board of governors, which Trump had appointed, had recommended the $25 billion boost.
Trump acknowledged that starving the cash-strapped agency of fresh funds would compromise its ability to deliver ballots in a timely fashion.
On Friday, the USPS confirmed that it had issued a warning to 46 states of "significant risk" that some voters might be disenfranchised because it might not be able to meet state deadlines for delivering last-minute ballots.
The potential for problems is likely smaller in California than in many other states. California has long had one of the nation's most generous laws in allowing extra time for ballots to be received by elections officials.
The state has gone even further this fall, requiring any ballot with an envelope postmarked by Nov. 3 to be counted as long as it arrives within 17 days of the election.
The USPS letter sent to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla acknowledged the "vast majority" of the state's voters should not be affected by delays. Those who register in late October could face a greater risk of not receiving a ballot in the mail, though many counties will urge such voters to pick up a ballot in person.
As the controversy gathered steam, the agency's inspector general, Tammy Whitcomb, separately announced an investigation of the cost-cutting measures by DeJoy, including elimination of overtime pay and removal of more than 600 high-speed mail-sorting machines, as well as mailboxes in some locales.
The election dispute has put the nation's postal service, which traces its roots to 1775 when Benjamin Franklin was named the first postmaster general, in the crosshairs of a bitter partisan battle.
Polls show that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to vote by mail this year, and Trump insists _ without evidence _ that widespread use of mail-in ballots will lead to rampant fraud. He and first lady Melania Trump have requested mail ballots from Florida.
For their part, Democrats scheduled the hearing with DeJoy and Robert M. Duncan, the chairman of the postal service board of governors, on Aug. 24, also the first day of the Republican National Convention, which will nominate Trump for reelection. The Democratic National Convention, which will nominate Joe Biden, will take place this week.
Since prospects appear dim for a swift end to the coronavirus outbreak, which has left nearly 170,000 Americans dead, tens of millions of Americans are expected to vote by mail to avoid the risk of infection in lines at polling places.
Critics have spotlighted DeJoy's potential conflicts of interest due to his reported financial investments in companies that compete with the post office. Demonstrators staged noisy but peaceful protests over the weekend outside his apartment complex in Washington.
On Sunday's TV talk shows, Democrats accused Trump of peddling baseless accusations of widespread fraud in past mail balloting.
"What concerns me is an all-out attack _ they're not even hiding it _ by the president of the United States to undermine the United States Postal Service, to underfund it, to allow a mega-donor leading it to overtly do things to slow down the mail," Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," accused Trump of "doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting, at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote."
Trump and his aides have sought to draw a distinction between absentee voting, which every state allows, and so-called universal mail-in voting, in which mail-in ballots are sent to all voters. Fewer than 10 states do that.
Speaking to reporters Saturday at his New Jersey golf club, Trump said universal mail-in voting would be "catastrophic" and would render the United States "the laughingstock of the world."
Trump argued that with millions of mail-in ballots, "you're never going to know when the election is over ... for months or years" and that ballots "are going to be lost, they're going to be gone."
Meanwhile, senior aides said Trump's motives in opposing mail-in ballots were being misinterpreted.
"I'll give you that guarantee right now: The president of the United States is not going to interfere with anybody casting their vote in a legitimate way, whether it's the post office or anything else," Trump's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said on CNN.
Many Democrats, and a few Republicans, have cited the repercussions of weakening or disrupting mail service as going far beyond the upcoming election.
"The last thing we should be doing is politicizing the postal service _ it's not as though it exists just for vote by mail," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who co-chairs the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN.
"Think about the seniors who rely on it for medicines, our veterans, our small businesses, the commerce associated with the backbone of this country," he said. "We need to fund the postal service. We need to root for its success, as opposed to the opposite."
