Name: As postmaster general halts cuts to post office, Tong joins lawsuit against Trump administration to restore service he says could affect mail-in balloting
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As postmaster general halts cuts to post office, Tong joins lawsuit against Trump administration to restore service he says could affect mail-in balloting

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantAug 19, 2020 at 8:14 amEven as the post master general said he would delay changes to the postal system until after the November election, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and colleagues from several states said Tuesday they are pressing forward with a federal lawsuit challenging cuts to the U.S. Postal Service and demanding restoration of cuts already implemented.Democrats have attacked President Donald Trump and his postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, arguing they are sabotaging the postal service so that it will not be able to handle an expected explosion in mail-in voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.Advertisement“We will not allow Donald Trump to steal the election by sabotaging the United States Postal Service,” Tong said. “He cannot unilaterally impose onerous and arbitrary new conditions on the postal service to suit his political needs. Complaints are pouring in from across Connecticut. Medicine is not being delivered on time to sick seniors. Child support payments are arriving late to financially insecure mothers. Small businesses are getting paid late and cannot deliver their products on time. And some Connecticut residents were already denied their right to vote when their August absentee ballots arrived late.”Trump has attacked mail-in voting and made clear last week that he was blocking $25 billion in emergency aid to the Postal Service to curtail election mail operations, as well as a Democratic proposal to provide $3.6 billion in additional election money to the states to help process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.AdvertisementDeJoy, who is to testify before the Senate on Friday, said Tuesday he was suspending any changes until after the election.“There are some longstanding 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,” DeJoy said in a statement. “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded.”Too little, too late, Tong said. “We’re asking the postmaster general and the Trump administration to stop what they’re doing and to reverse the changes they’ve already made,” Tong said.And any promises must be made to a judge, Tong said. “They need to put all that in writing in a binding judicial decree,” Tong told The Courant.The lawsuit names the Trump, DeJoy and the postal service as defendants and accuses Trump and DeJoy of ignoring federal law that requires the Postal Service to seek an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission before imposing any change that affects service nationwide. The step allows for any proposal to be evaluated and for there to be public notice and comment.“They have not done that,” Tong said. “These statutory and regulatory claims have been very effective against the president. They just don’t follow the rules.”Constitutionally-mandated federal agencies are bound by regulatory and administrative laws, Tong said.The Trump administration “routinely blows through rules they have to follow. That’s why they’re unlawful and unconstitutional,” Tong said.AdvertisementDeJoy, a Republican donor with no previous postal management experience, became postmaster general on May 6 and since then has eliminated staff overtime, altered operations at state distribution centers, removed critical mail sorting equipment, and threatened the timely delivery of mail to individuals who rely on the Postal Service for everything from medical prescriptions to ballots, Tong said.Mail processing centers that serve Connecticut will lose 18 high-speed mail processing machines – some of which can sort upwards of 30,000 letters per hour – in the months immediately before the November election, Tong said, adding removal of the machines will require these sorting to be done by hand at the same time that overtime is being drastically cut.The Postal Service also recently notified states that it will end its longstanding practice of processing ballots as first-class mail — regardless of what type of postage is used, Tong said. States and counties that use marketing or bulk-rate postage for their ballots could experience delays that may prevent some ballots from being counted, he said.“Mail is backing up in post offices all over the state because of corrosive and counterproductive new policies imposed in the runup to the national election by the new Trump loyalist Postmaster General,” Tong charged. “Mail sorting machinery is being removed from Connecticut processing facilities, forcing postal workers to sort mail by hand. Packages are prioritized over letters – including ballots – while postal workers are denied the overtime they need to sort and deliver mail. The President greatly misjudged the anger his unlawful policies would unleash across this country. We will ask the court to block these destructive new policies and fully and immediately restore the postal service, so that Americans can cast their ballots with confidence this November and know their votes will be counted.”Tong said his office has heard from people across the state reporting delayed absentee ballots, prescriptions, rent checks, child support, disability and worker’s compensation payments. He said his office has also heard from postal employees describing removal of processing machines, limitations on overtime, and trucks being sent out without waiting for mail to be sorted and loaded.Connecticut has joined a lawsuit brought by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, which alleges the the Postal Service implemented the changes to mail service nationwide unlawfully, and seeks an immediately halt of the agency’s actions. Washington and Connecticut are joined by Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.AdvertisementAnother lawsuit is reportedly planned by Pennsylvania’s attorney general.“At a basic level, it’s illegal to interfere with the mail,” Tong said. “And it’s illegal to block someone from voting.”David Owens can be reached at . Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantAug 19, 2020 at 8:14 amEven as the post master general said he would delay changes to the postal system until after the November election, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and colleagues from several states said Tuesday they are pressing forward with a federal lawsuit challenging cuts to the U.S. Postal Service and demanding restoration of cuts already implemented.Democrats have attacked President Donald Trump and his postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, arguing they are sabotaging the postal service so that it will not be able to handle an expected...

As postmaster general halts cuts to post office, Tong joins lawsuit against Trump administration to restore service he says could affect mail-in balloting

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