this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2024
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Local election offices reportedly received mailed ballots days after the deadline to be counted ‘in nearly every state’

State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the US Postal Service (USPS) that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.

The officials said in a letter that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted.

They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable.

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[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 158 points 2 months ago (4 children)

It's exactly what Republicans wanted by making Louis DeJoy the Postmaster General, right?

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 95 points 2 months ago (2 children)

How.

The fuck.

Is that fucking guy still there?

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 52 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

It's complicated, and Congress is taking advantage of that to keep him there. The nine-member United States Postal Service Board of Governors has sole authority to fire, and hire, the Postmaster General. At the moment there are only 7 members, 3 Dems, 3 Reps, 1 Ind. 6 members are required for a quorum.

Biden has 2 pending nominations and a pending reappointment of an existing governor. There are still 2 governors remaining from Trump's administration at this point. The Senate confirmed 3 seats in July 2021 and 2 seats in May 2022, and nothing since. They seem to be doing the absolute bare minimum to intentionally delay any possible changes.

Note that these are not full time government positions like the Postmaster. They only meet once a month usually.

[–] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I thought the Democrats are in control of the Senate? Why delay on something that might hurt their own party's seats?

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That's the neat part! They aren't!

Sinema and Manchin officially went Independent, plus there's like half a dozen other neoliberals who are just as guilty of being rat fucking losers that got less press.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Because politics isn't simple in reality, there are a lot of different reasons things are approved or not that may not even be relevant to the actual issue at hand.

On top of that, the parties are very different on how they handle things. The Republican party generally will fall in line as a group, they treat politics very simply. Seemingly because they all have closets overflowing with skeletons that they're all hiding for each other and they'll be exposed if they don't follow the group. You're either part of the group and they'll defend you at all costs, or they tear will you apart.

The Democratic party on the other hand are like herding cats. They might be working towards the same general goal, maybe, but they won't just fall in line because the group says they should.

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ehhhh.. The Republicans are pretty torn now. They couldn't even agree on a house speaker and replaced their first choice within months.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Don't mistake the infighting over something that actually matters, for an inability to bully each other into being an obstruction to anything the Democrats want. Not electing a speaker is just as effective obstruction as well. As long as they don't actually want to pass anything on their side, it's arguably even more effective. And that's their purpose. The current Republican platform is to be the exact opposite of the Dems, and whatever blurts out of Trump's mouth at the moment.

They don't like each other, but they stand together being a wall for anything the Dems want to pass, regardless of what it is. At this point they'd probably vote against a nationwide abortion ban at conception with no exceptions if the Dems introduced the bill.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

The Senate confirmed 3 seats in July 2021 and 2 seats in May 2022, and nothing since.

Crazy. Who is the Senate Majority Leader right now?

[–] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 2 months ago

Biden didn't have the power to remove him and didn't want to appear to act like the orange man. Politics getting in the way of Democracy.

[–] frickineh@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That's exactly what he was put there to do. Well, that and just generally disrupt the postal service enough to push people to their more expensive competitors. It's dramatic but I always joke that he's my nemesis. I'm just grateful that we have ballot drop boxes all over in CO where I live so that people don't have to depend on the mail.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Post Offices are directly mentioned in the constitution as a job of the federal gov. Its so crazy to me how much cover the US media gives republicans when they do their nonsense.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Doesn't seem to be a very good plan, USPS has been consistently delivering all my packages, sending and receiving, on time or even ahead of schedule.

And I send and receive a lot of packages. I also send and receive FedEx a lot, and they're also consistently on time, but USPS still beats them on "chance of early delivery"

I don't do a whole lot with UPS, I've maybe had 4 or 5 packages the past couple months with them and 3 of them were late. UPS sucks.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

They didn't change much. They removed most air/overnight options and they set the delivery standard to the actual real world.

Air mail gets delayed too often, so they went with a longer but more consistent approach.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 28 points 2 months ago

Anybody that the Republicans put in charge of any federal agency is there for the purpose of destroying that agency. I used to think defense was an exception but, given Republican's new found love for Russia, I don't think that can be assumed any longer.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 64 points 2 months ago

Every time Republicans screw up some government service, the goal is to point to it later and go "see? Government doesn't work."

[–] fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc 49 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Everything in the US is so god damn partisan.

How can the fucking postal service be republican?

And... why is there no democrat stuff?

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

See this lake? It's republican, so you can swim here. But that one over there? It's where the democrats hide the dead babies they kill to get their blood.

Oh, and potatoes grown in this field are republicans, but stay away from the taters across the road!

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Because the left typically aren't autocratic. They want our agencies and services to actually work efficiently and provide the most they can for the highest number of people, rather than turning everything into a goddamn team sport.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Because the left typically aren’t autocratic.

You don't need an autocracy to have a functional postal service.

This is Republicans taking advantage of a weak liberal institution, not leftists declining to become tyrants.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

You don't need an autocracy to have a functional postal service.

Huh? Are you confused by my point maybe? The Democrats are the ones who actually have an interest in our government functioning well. And they are not the autocratic party (that's obviously the GOP).

Just because Biden is currently president, does not mean that the Democratic party is responsible for the dysfunction of the USPS. Those of us who remember the last election, remember Louis DeJoy very well, and we understand how this fucking clown is still in charge... And it's because of Republicans (and two attention whore "independents" who refused to let the Biden Administration do anything about it).

So yeah, we don't need autocracy to have a functioning postal service, yes... I don't know why you would think I thought otherwise based on my comment.

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Isn’t this illegal? Shouldn’t the postmaster be arrested by USPIS?

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Powerful people can just commit crimes in the US and it's fine.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Who could could have possibly seen this coming!? /s

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Biden kept this piece of shit from the Trump admin.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 5 points 2 months ago

He did not, the president cannot remove him because of the board that controls the position. It requires congress to change, and congress is not majority blue, so we just have traitors still installed who are actively doing damage to the US.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 15 points 2 months ago

Vote blue for congress this November. We need to get Dejoy out, he's a fucking traitor.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

As ever, one party's general view is that the less votes successfully cast the better.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Would that be the same party that argues that the post office should recieve less funding?

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago

It's impossible to say.

[–] Kidding_me@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

I bet if you hold DeJoy's position and pay to adequate delivery response, a miracle would happen. Perhaps even a fine/prosecution for election tampering as an added bonus