AZ Secretary of State: Trump Trying to ‘Sabotage’ USPS Ahead of Election Day

United States Postal Service carrier Henrietta Dixon delivers mail to Alvin Fields in Phil
AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) accused the Trump administration of attempting to “sabotage” the United States Postal Service ahead of Election Day and is demanding an investigation, as detailed in a letter on Friday to state Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R).

“In Arizona, it’s against the law to ‘delay the delivery of a ballot.’ I’ve asked Attorney General Brnovich to investigate recent changes at USPS, and whether or not the Trump administration has committed a crime,” she said on social media, attaching her letter to the attorney general:

Hobbs outlined what she describes as the “long and successful” history of voting by mail in Arizona.

“The faith in and reliance on our ballot-by-mail system is nonpartisan, with the vast majority of ballots for each party being cast this way,” she wrote, directing concern toward recent changes to the “organizational structure” of the U.S. Postal Service — which faces serious financial strain — recently announced by postmaster general Louis DeJoy. The changes, Hobbs wrote, will result in the elimination of overtime for postal workers, hiring freezes, and the “removal of mail sorting machines.”

“The effect of these changes, taken individually or together, is an extended transit period for mail,” she continued, questioning the timing of the changes, as the election draws closer.

Hobbs quoted President Trump’s August 13 remark about Democrats’ demands for USPS funding in the next coronavirus relief measure as a basis for her call for an investigation.

As the Hill reported:

They want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. “Now in the meantime, they aren’t getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting, because they’re not equipped to have it.

That remark, Hobbs said, “leaves any reasonable person with the inescapable conclusion that recent directives at the USPS are part of a larger, coordinated scheme to interfere with Americans’, including Arizonans’, ability to vote safely by mail.”

“In a state where the vast majority of voters choose to do so by mail, attempts to sabotage the USPS just months before an election are most certainly attempts to interfere with the ‘free exercise of the right of suffrage,'” she continued.

In a following social media post, Hobbs emphasized that Attorney General Brnovich “must investigate immediately”:

Hobbs is not the only high profile Democrat figure accusing the president of interfering with the 2020 election. Former President Barack Obama, during a Friday appearance on the Campaign HQ with David Plouffe podcast, said Trump is attempting to “actively kneecap the postal service.”

Trump has warned of the dangers of mass mail-in voting, telling Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday that it will result in a “rigged election.”

“[T]hey play a much dirtier game, a much tougher game than the Republicans,” Trump said. “The Republicans, fortunately, much better policy, but they ought to get tougher. The Republicans have to get tougher.”

“And this whole thing with this mail-in ballot, that’s a rigged election waiting to happen,” he cautioned.

USPS has since warned states, including voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, that “it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised,” the AP detailed.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.