Trump Declares War on Post Office To Prevent Americans’ Votes From Being Counted

Trump and GOP Nominee Loren Culp Both Oppose Universal Vote By Mail

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | August 13, 2020  

The right to vote is not only fundamental to American democracy; our country’s history is defined by generations of struggle for access to the franchise for all Americans. But amid a pandemic, Donald Trump is brazenly continuing the tradition of conservative politicians trying to suppress the right to vote for the most vulnerable among us — all for his own political gain. He told Fox Business this morning:

“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. {…} But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting.”

But it’s not just Trump. Here in Washington, GOP candidates and elected officials have either parroted Trump’s rhetoric or stood by Culp tweeted that Vote by Mail was “Not effective” while citing a misleading study.

We already know that here in Washington we are facing this threat. Recent reporting by the Spokesman-Review uncovered state officials worried that recent changes by the Trump-run USPS will prevent ballots from being counted and drive up costs:

“In Washington, voters can register or update their address up until eight days before the election. Wyman said the Postal Service has traditionally treated ballots as first-class mail, despite counties paying the lower marketing mail rate, but she said Marshall’s letter makes it clear that the state will need to pay a premium – roughly six times the usual per-envelope cost – to ensure voters receive their ballots in time.”

But while Washington state’s Senators advance a bipartisan effort to hold Trump’s donor and new USPS chief accountable for these unacceptable delays, Washington state’s own chief elections official could not muster an objection. In fact, she has not even issued any official communication warning Washington voters about the potential impact of these delivery delays on their ballots — despite being warned by Trump’s new USPS chief that “certain deadlines concerning mail-in ballots, particularly with respect to voters who register to vote or update their registration information shortly before Election Day, may be incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards.”

“Trump’s assault on the postal service is unacceptable and proves what we’ve known all along: Trump and the Washington state Republicans who parrot his talking points like Loren Culp will do anything to win, even if that means suppressing countless votes,” said Tina Podlodowski, Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party. “Even one ballot going uncounted due to Trump’s sabotage of the postal service is an affront to democracy, and this latest failure to fight for the integrity of the election’s she is trusted to oversee shows that Kim Wyman cannot meet the crisis her party’s president is forcing on our democracy.”

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