Postal Service pushes back after Trump says it can’t handle mail-in voting in November

After President Trump cast doubt on the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to handle mail-in ballots during the election in November, the agency said it had “ample capacity” to do so.

“The Postal Service has ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected Election and Political Mail volume, including any additional volume that may result as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the agency said in a statement.

The statement comes as states are looking for safer alternatives to vote during the coronavirus pandemic, and after Trump criticized Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, who signed a bill allowing mail-in voting.

“In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday. “Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!”

Studies have found that mail-in voting does not benefit one party more than the other, FiveThirtyEight reported.

Trump has derided mail-in voting for months, claiming — without evidence — that the method of voting is ripe for fraud, The New York Times reported. “Universal mail-in ballots is going to be a great embarrassment to our country,” he said.

Trump doubled down on his comments, claiming that mail-in voting could lead to a delay in election results in an interview with Axios released on Tuesday.

“You know, you could have a case where this election won’t be decided on the evening of Nov. 3. This election could be decided two months later,” Trump said.

Trump said mail-in voting was an issue because “lots of things will happen during that period of time. Especially when you have tight margins. Lots of things can happen. There’s never been anything like this.” Trump also said “somebody got a ballot for a dog.”

In 2007, a woman in Washington state registered her dog to vote, The New York Times reported. Another person tried to do the same in 2016 but King County officials said it wasn’t approved due to the information not matching databases.

King County prosecutors told the person that if the goal was to make a point about the system’s flaws, it wasn’t successful. “Instead, your actions demonstrated that the state laws designed to prevent voter fraud work,” prosecutors wrote.

American Postal Workers Union’s President Mark Dimondstein told CNN that delays could impact mail-in voting for the election.

Dimondstein said there have been reports that mail delivery has “degraded” and slowed down after new rules were put in place.

“The states run elections, not the Postal Service. But the Postal Service is here to move those ballots. And when mail gets slowed down, it becomes a concern everywhere,” he said.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee requested Louis DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser and newly-appointed postmaster general, to testify about the changes to USPS procedures, Forbes reported.

DeJoy implemented changes, including getting rid of overtime for hundreds of thousands of employees and requiring mail that arrives late to be delivered the next day, according to the publication.

Four Democratic senators wrote to DeJoy, explaining that the changes could lead to mail delays and impact voting during the election.

“It is essential that the Postal Service not slow down mail or in any way compromise service for veterans, small businesses, rural communities, seniors, and millions of Americans who rely on the mail – including significant numbers who will be relying on the Postal Service to exercise their right to vote,” they wrote in a letter.

An Axios/Ipsos poll found Democrats are more likely to be concerned about in-person voting as a risk for getting COVID-19.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said in-person voting was risky. Sixty-four percent of Democrats said it was risky compared to 29% of Republicans who said the same. The poll was conducted July 31-August 3 based on a sample of 1,129 adults. The margin of error is 3.0 to 3.4 percentage points.

Another poll from Yahoo News/YouGov — with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points — found 55% of Trump supporters said they won’t view former Vice President Joe Biden’s win as legitimate if mail-in voting puts him over Trump.