Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy asking him to ensure that two US Postal Service unions, which endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, will not manipulate the results of the Nov. 3 election.
“Americans cannot have confidence in the outcome of the election if these openly biased groups are given a significant role in the conduct of vote-by-mail without equally significant measures to ensure fairness,” Comer wrote.
As a check on the Democrat-run USPS, Comer said DeJoy should establish ballot watch programs at post offices where Republicans and Democrats monitor workers, similar to poll watchers at voting locations.
The USPS expects to handle as many as 80 million mail-in and absentee ballots in the 2020 election.
With about 140 million ballots set to be cast, the government-run organization will have a significant role in monitoring the election’s integrity. Yet, the USPS has openly declared its partisan interest in the election, a situation that the Democrats would not accept were the situation reversed.
Almost all USPS employees, not only the unions, have a partisan interest in the race.
“The Postal Service website says that nearly 550,000 of the 600,000 USPS employees are covered by some sort of collective bargaining agreement,” wrote Comer, a ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. “At least two major postal unions have endorsed Joe Biden for president.”
One of the unions, the National Association of Letter Carriers, represents more than 275,000 workers.
The NALC is affiliated with the highly partisan American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, which consistently backs the Democratic Party.
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign received inappropriate help from the NALC in 2016, according to a 2017 Office of Special Counsel report that found “institutional bias.”
Comer wrote that he has not been able to determine whether institutional bias still remains at the USPS union.
The other union that endorsed Biden is the National Postal Mail Handlers Union, and it represents 50,000 workers. It it also affiliated with the AFL–CIO.
“This obvious bias raises questions about whether the USPS plan’s strong reliance on highly partisan organizations for election-related operational matters–up to and including the actual handling of ballots in the case of Ballot Monitors–risks creating doubts about election results,” Comer wrote.
DeJoy said at a previous hearing that the USPS is training employees in a “Ballot Ambassador” program, which gives them the knowledge needed to prevent errors and fraud when handling ballots.
Another of Comer’s concerns is that the USPS is relying on decisions being made at the local level, where pro-Democrat bias may affect the persons who serve as Ballot Monitors.
He wrote that USPS headquarters should take a greater role in promoting election integrity.
“To ensure operations are fair and efficient for a national election, it is important for USPS to communicate standards and processes to local officials and to make these transparent to the public,” he wrote.
