'They're not needed, sir': Postmaster General Louis DeJoy says USPS won't replace removed mail-sorting machines

rpremack@businessinsider.com (Rachel Premack)
Updated ·3 min read
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Postal workers and union leaders have expressed concern that the loss of mail-sorting machines could hamper the USPS' ability to respond to the uptick of election mail coming this fall.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

  • The USPS has been quietly destroying mail-sorting machines across the US.

  • It's not clear how many have already been destroyed.

  • Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a testimony to the Senate on Friday that these machines will not be replaced.

  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Related video: The rise and fall of USPS

The US Postal Service will not replace the mail-sorting machines it has removed, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told the Senate's Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Friday.

Sen. Gary Peters, who serves on the committee, questioned DeJoy on how his policies, including the elimination of an unknown number of those machines and limiting how often employees can work late or make extra trips, have contributed to a slowdown in mail delivery.

The removal and destruction of mail-sorting machines has become a politically sensitive topic in recent weeks. Postal workers and union leaders have express sed concern that the loss of these machines, which can sort 36,000 pieces of mail per hour, could hamper the USPS' ability to respond to the uptick of election mail coming this fall.

Prominent Democrats called for the hearing to "examine the sweeping operational and organizational changes at the Postal Service that experts warn could degrade delivery standards, slow the mail and potentially impair the rights of eligible Americans to cast their votes through the mail in the upcoming November elections," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and others wrote in a joint statement.

The USPS told its postal worker union in June that it would remove 671 machines in the coming months. In an about face, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told CNN on August 16 that additional machines would not be removed.

But, some portion of those machines were indeed removed, according to reports from Maine, Michigan, and Washington state. In total, it's not clear how many of those machines have been removed.

DeJoy made clear on Friday that these machines are not coming back. "They're not needed, sir," he told Peters in his Friday testimony. First-class mail volume sank by 16.5% from 2010 to 2019, which DeJoy said rationalized the removal of those sorting-machines.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has made clear he's interested in stymieing USPS funding in order to limit mail-in voting. That could have a serious impact on results in November, as Business Insider's Grace Panetta reported:

A national Economist/YouGov survey conducted August 16-18 found that 55% of Biden supporters but just 19% of Trump supporters plan on voting by mail while 26% of Biden supporters and 54% of Trump supporters plan on voting in-person on Election Day.

Such a lopsided partisan divide has profound implications for the election results. It means that Americans likely won't know the winner of the presidential race on election night, and that Trump could lead the vote count on election night but lose his lead to Biden over the next few days as mail ballots are counted.

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