Congressional delegation, attorney general condemn postal service changes

Delaware's congressional delegation and state attorney general joined forces Aug. 18 to support the U.S. Postal Service and condemn recent changes that they say have slowed mail delivery.

“It's time for the rest of us to step up to the plate and do our part to save voting by mail in this upcoming election in Delaware and throughout our country,” said Attorney General Kathleen Jennings before announcing a lawsuit filed by Delaware and other states against the USPS for infringing on Americans' constitutionally guaranteed right to vote.

Recent changes in USPS operations have slowed mail, Jennings said, in violation of federal law mandating the USPS submit any planned changes that will affect service on a substantially nationwide basis to the Postal Regulatory Commission for review and a hearing.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy – who reportedly donated to President Donald Trump's campaign and raised money for the Republican National Convention – released a statement Aug. 18 saying changes he made after taking his position in June will be suspended until after the election. For now, he said, retail hours at post offices will not change; mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are; mail processing facilities will not be closed; and overtime will be approved as needed.

“I came to the Postal Service to make changes to secure the success of this organization and its long-term sustainability. I believe significant reforms are essential to that objective, and work toward those reforms will commence after the election. In the meantime, there are some long-standing operational initiatives – efforts that predate my arrival at the Postal Service – that have been raised as areas of concern as the nation prepares to hold an election in the midst of a devastating pandemic. To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in his Aug. 18 statement.

While acknowledging DeJoy's statement, Delaware Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester said her office has received more than 1,000 phone calls from constituents concerned about slow mail delivery since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are not going to let our foot off the gas, because we have to make sure that not only are these promises kept, but we return the boxes, the equipment. We've got to make sure we don't go backward,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons said his office has received about 1,800 calls from residents over slow mail deliveries. He said DeJoy began making changes at the USPS to rein in $25 billion in losses without notifying Congress, government officials or any one of the four unions that represent USPS employees. Coons said he does not believe the post office should be treated like a business.

“[Postmaster General DeJoy] carried out fundamental restructures of how our mail is delivered, not just here in Delaware but nationwide,” Coons said.

He said large, modern, high-speed sorting machines have been dismantled and removed from mail distribution centers; collection boxes have also been removed from the streets, postal delivery routes have been shortened, and overtime has not been approved.

“The reliable, regular delivery of mail is part of what it means to be a modern nation,” Coons said. “This is putting a thumb on the scale of the outcome of an election.”

As more people than ever are expected to vote by mail for the 2020 election, Jennings said the right to vote should not be undermined by somebody cost-cutting in the White House and in Washington, D.C.

“It's no coincidence that this Postmaster DeJoy just wrote this letter saying he is somewhat backing off,” she said. “It's no coincidence that he wrote that letter on the eve of attorneys general across the country preparing lawsuits against the U.S. Postal Service for undermining our sacred vote.”

President Donald Trump has been an outspoken critic of the postal service, saying that he believes the general election will be rigged if mail-in voting is allowed. DeJoy is scheduled to answer questions Monday, Aug. 24, in Congress.

Delaware vote-by-mail statute

On July 1, Carney signed into law a bill allowing Delawareans to vote by mail in the 2020 primary, general election, and special elections. House Bill 346, which expires in January 2021, makes voting by mail an alternative to in-person voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and establishes procedures for voting by mail which mirror the procedures for absentee voting. Voting by mail does not replace in-person voting, which will be available for those not voting by absentee or mail ballot, the bill states.

“We want to make it easier for people to exercise their right to vote,” Carney said.

The bill passed along party lines June 18 in the House by a vote of 25-13 with two not voting and one absent.

Rep. Bryan Shupe, R-Milford, said he is in favor of extending absentee voting, but he voted no because of the $829,000 price tag for mailing affidavits to all registered voters. He also said the voter rolls with 700,000 people are outdated. “I know this by personal experience – by receiving voter registration cards two years ago from previous owners of the house I lived in at the time, [and] sending out literature using those voter rolls and receiving multiple phone calls from residents that told me that the registered voter had passed away years before,” he said.

On June 25, the bill passed the Senate by an 18-3 vote. Senate Minority Leader Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View, Sen. Dave Wilson, R-Bridgeville, and Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, all voted no.

The short turn-around time to request a ballot – up until four days before an election – is an issue, Carney said.

Department of Elections Commissioner Anthony Albence said Delaware law allows voters to request a mail-in ballot in as little as four days before an election. “We just encourage everyone to return [their ballots] as early as possible,” Albence said. “We put seven days as a best practice.”

To vote by mail in the Tuesday, Sept. 15 state primary, he said, the last day the elections office will mail out ballots is Friday, Sept. 11, and for the general election, the last day ballots will be mailed out is Friday, Oct. 30.

Unlike other states where election departments can make changes, Albence said, in Delaware any changes to the voting process must be done by the state Legislature.

“In light of the postal service, going into the future, we'll have to look at asking the Legislature to take a look at that, and possibly change that if that's their desire to do so,” Albence said.

About 45 percent of voters in Delaware's presidential primary submitted ballots through the mail – a dramatic increase from 3 to 4 percent in a typical election year.

Still, Albence said Delaware has a good, long-standing relationship with regional postal officials that have dedicated election mail specialists. “We have someone who has been in that role, who supports Delaware, for many, many years. He's a postal service veteran who has been in the trenches, knows the operations inside and out.”

Albence said election officials also work with local postal officials to make sure they receive as many mailed-in ballots as possible. He said Delaware is a ballot-enhanced state, which means by law the returned mail-in ballot must be back in the custody of the county elections office that issued the ballot by the close of polls – 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Another term to describe mail-in voting in Delaware is ballot-in-hand, which means by law, Delaware does not honor postmarks. “We don't have the ability to do that. Our state law is very clear that the ballot must be back by 8 p.m. close-of-polls time to that county election office,” he said.

Albence said as the primary and general elections approach, he expects to continue a good working relationship with the postal service. “I have great confidence that will continue as it has historically,” he said.

For the Sept. 15 state primary, Albence said, Delaware is a closed-primary state. Only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote, he said, and they can only vote for candidates who share the same party.

The date to switch parties has passed, Albence said, but those who have never registered can still do so by Saturday, Aug. 22.

For those who want to return their mail-in ballots in person, Albence said, there are boxes at the Sussex County Department of Elections at 119 N. Race St. in Georgetown where they can drop a ballot off in person.

“The sooner, the better,” he said.

Quarantine redux

In its on-again-off-again dance with a regional quarantine list, Delaware found itself once again on the quarantine list Aug. 18 for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

And just as he was perplexed the last two times those states put travelers from Delaware on their 14-day quarantine lists, Gov. Carney was left wondering why Delaware is back on them again.

“That just doesn't make any sense,” he said. “They're not using the data that we see. We've asked time and again for the formula used to keep us off the list.”

Carney said he believes those states are pulling cumulative cases from week to week for Delaware, which doesn't take into account the decreasing number of hospitalizations and percent of COVID-19 positives.

With hundreds of out-of-state college students moving into off-campus housing at University of Delaware, and on campus at Delaware State University, Carney said, officials are keeping an eye on potential COVID-19 outbreaks in order to try and prevent what has happened at University of North Carolina, Notre Dame and other colleges that brought back students only to have had a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Carney said officials will be able to pinpoint cases to those campuses if there is a surge, so that the rest of the state is not penalized. “We can do that, and we will do that if need be,” he said.

The problem comes with the off-campus parties, Carney said.

“That's where the problem is, with these big parties where lots of young adults are drinking and carrying on and not paying any attention to the fact that we have a COVID-19 virus on the loose,” he said. “And it started in Newark, by the way.”