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Secretary of State Jim Condos called on Congress Wednesday to commit emergency funds to the U.S. Postal Service, saying a weakened mail system could harm this year’s elections.
“Simply put, mid-election year is not the time for changes to the dependability of the Postal Service,” Condos said, especially during a pandemic that “will increase the necessity of voting by mail for so many Americans.”
The Postal Service needs help because of dwindling revenues. Postmaster General Megan Brennan told lawmakers early this month that without federal aid, the service will “run out of cash” by October.
She said the agency anticipates losing $13 billion in revenue this year because of Covid-19 and $54.3 billion over the next decade.
The Postal Service Board of Governors has asked Congress for a stimulus package of $75 billion, but the Trump administration appears reluctant to fund the agency.
President Donald Trump said last week that he wouldn’t be “signing anything” if the Postal Service didn’t raise its prices, before later tweeting that he’d never let the agency fail. The Washington Post reported that Trump threatened to veto last month’s stimulus bill if postal funds were included.
Joined on a Wednesday conference call by Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman and American Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimondstein, Condos said it’d be disastrous if the Postal Service ran out of money.
“The U.S. Postal Service is essential to ensuring that our free and fair elections prevail,” he said.
About 30% of Vermonters on average vote early by mail in primary and general elections, he said, including military service members, people with disabilities and those busy with work.
He highlighted that Vermonters in rural parts of the state with shaky internet access might have a hard time registering to vote online, too.
Dimondstein, whose union represents 200,000 postal workers, called Trump’s comments outrageous and warned of the consequences of inaction.
“If the Post Office is not there to deliver, we won’t have an election, or any kind of fair election,” he said. “If the Post Office, in its dire straits, is not helped out by Congress, then it’s going to directly affect not only this election coming but all the elections moving forward.”
Twenty-one percent of voters sent their ballots by mail in the 2016 presidential election, according to census data, a figure that’s been rising over the last 20 years.
Condos said he had spoken to Vermont’s congressional delegation about the Postal Service, and about concerns he has with the coronavirus stimulus bill’s mechanism for funding elections. For states to receive the funds, a 20% match is required.
Condos said if the Postal Service can’t operate, in-person polling places would still be open. His agency would try to “drive down the number of people who actually have to put their health and safety at risk by going into a poll location and having to essentially rub elbows with other people.”
And he said the people with disabilities could use the state’s existing accessible voting system to get their ballots filled, printed and mailed or taken to election officials.
But he feels optimistic that the postal funding will come through.
He cited a recent Pew Research Center survey showing the Postal Service was the most favorably viewed federal agency, at 91% approval from respondents.
“I just can’t imagine that Congress would just ignore that,” he said.
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