Hinson questions Postmaster General on delivery of absentee ballots

WASHINGTON — North-central Iowa congresswoman Ashley Hinson and others on a House subcommittee last week quizzed the head of the United States Postal Service regarding concerns about the delivery of absentee ballots for this year’s election.

Hinson asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about a letter sent to him earlier this month by election officials from around the country citing concerns that the Postal Service has not made improvements to address the late delivery of absentee ballots in the last two major elections. “Earlier this month, a group of state election officials submitted a letter to you expressing concerns about that process for the mailed ballots for the general election. In addition to staff training and delivery times, they noted that they had not seen significant improvement or concerted efforts to remediate their concerns. Now I appreciate in your response, which I have both of these, their letter and then yours, that you committed to work more closely together with state and local officials leading up to the election.”

Hinson then asked DeJoy about what specific actions the USPS has taken to ensure staff are accessible to election officials or on the ground in places like Iowa to be able to quickly address concerns.   “I am a very accessible Postmaster General. A phone call would have helped instead of a letter to the press, because we’ve had a good working relationship with them. I got on the phone with them after. We have scheduled meetings, I’m going to meet with a larger part of that group, but I also recognize that we’re not perfect. We’re not perfect in communication. We’re not perfect — it’s not a perfect system.”

Hinson asked DeJoy how issues are going to be dealt with.   “As far as these trainings, are you encouraging that so people know ‘hey we have a system to run our concerns up this food chain’ if they do identify problems with mail-in ballots? Are there going to be processes in place to ensure that USPS staff are not only responsive, they are notified and that these issues are dealt with in a timely manner?”

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 and we meet because of our functions. We’re engaging in trying to be — we are proactive, but we need to be more proactive and not just wait for issues to come to use to have a dialogue with these people, but to be proactive and express building confidence.”

Hinson told DeJoy she wants to make sure Iowans are confident their mailed ballot is going to get there on time.