Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers airing concerns about the delivery of absentee ballots for this year’s election. Hinson and other members of a House subcommittee quizzed the head of the U.S. Postal Service during a hearing late last week.
“Americans need to be able to trust you and that they can rely on you to get their election mail not only sent, but processed effectively and then, of course, after that accurately counted,” Hinson said, “and I know you’re not a part of that part, but it’s got to get there first.”
Hinson mentioned the letter election officials from around the country sent Postmaster General Louis DeJoy earlier this month. The letter cited concerns the Postal Service had not made improvements to address the late delivery of absentee ballots that prevented those votes from being counted in 2022 and 2023 elections.
“What specific actions have you taken to ensure that your staff are accessible to our state and local election officials on the ground in places like Iowa to be able to quickly address those concerns?” Hinson said.
DeJoy replied: “…I am a very accessible postmaster general…We’re not perfect. We’re not perfect in communication. It’s not a perfect system.”
DeJoy told lawmakers a year-round task force in the Postal Service has been focused on delivering mail-in ballots and he’s having meetings with Postal Service executives twice a week to review progress. Hinson asked DeJoy how complaints about ballot delivery issues will be handled.
“Are there going to be processes in place to ensure that USPS staff are not only responsive, that they’re notified and that these issues are dealt with in a timely manner?” Hinson asked.
DeJoy responded: “We’re a large organization going through a lot of change and as intensity builds sometimes we’re the last to the party…We are proactive, but we need to be more proactive and not just wait for issues to come to us to have dialogue with these people.”
DeJoy has announced the Postal Service is pausing its consolidation of mail processing centers in October and the first half of November, to accommodate absentee ballot deliveries. The Republican who led the committee said those changes have caused broad problems with the delivery of all mail. Hinson, a Republican from Marion, said those are major systematic changes and Iowans want delivery problems fixed.
“People don’t want an excuse of a change,” Hinson told DeJoy. “They want to make sure their ballot is going to be there on time.”
DeJoy said nearly all mail-in ballots in the last presidential election were delivered within seven days, which he describes as the “commonsense” and “recommended” time frame for processing and delivering mail.