The United States Postal Service (USPS) has sent a letter to Minnesota and other states warning that some of their presidential mail-in ballots may be delivered too late.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon received a letter from USPS saying that the organization’s delivery standards, combined with the state’s deadlines, will result in mail-in ballots showing up after ballot-counting deadlines.
“Under our reading of Minnesota’s election laws, certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards,” the letter states.
.@CBSNews confirms that @MNSteveSimon received a letter as well. "Under our reading of Minnesota's election laws, certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service's delivery standards," the letter says. https://t.co/tvqRJOUIad
— Jack Turman III (@jackturmanIII) August 14, 2020
Simon joined “Meet the Press” Friday to discuss the development, calling it “totally unnecessary and totally inappropriate in a democracy in the year 2020.”
“The Post Office ought to know better. And they do know, at least based on Minnesota’s procedures, that there are other things that the letter doesn’t account for. We had a recent court ruling, for example, that will give our citizens more time, not less, from the time they mail it to the time that it can arrive and that seems not to have been accounted for in the letter,” said Simon.
WATCH: U.S. Postal Service warns multiple states that some votes may be delivered too late to be counted@MNSteveSimon: "I view it as saber-rattling, totally unnecessary and totally inappropriate in a democracy in the year 2020." pic.twitter.com/ME8Kr6pbtm
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) August 14, 2020
He then eluded to possible political interference with the Postal Service.
“People who want to slow down the Postal Service won’t succeed in slowing down democracy,” he said. “Whoever it is that may be trying to slow down the Postal Service, they are not going to slow down democracy, period.”
A total of 46 states have reportedly received similar letters, which warned that widespread mail-in voting “creates a risk that ballots requested near the deadline under state law will not be returned by mail in time to be counted under your laws as we understand them.”
The letters were discovered the same day former President Barack Obama accused President Donald Trump of working against mail-in voting and trying to “actively kneecap the Postal Service.” Obama delivered those remarks on a podcast with his former campaign manager, David Plouffe.
Trump said this week that he opposes efforts to increase funding for USPS because the money will be used for mail-in ballots.
“They want $25 billion – billion – for the Post Office. Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” he said during a Thursday press conference.
Judah Torgerud
Judah Torgerud is a freelance journalist working with Alpha News to keep the people informed and bring the truth to light. Contact him at whqnu@nycunarjfza.pbz.