Postmaster general is confident about ability to process mail-in ballots

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has a message for America: The U.S. Postal Service is ready for a flood of election mail and is better positioned to do so than it was four years ago.

The Postal Service has been undergoing rapid changes, including the opening of large hubs, but some of those changes are being paused before the election to ensure they don't interfere with performance, DeJoy said. And it will be all hands on deck to ensure the millions of mail-in ballots are delivered swiftly to their destinations.

“We're going to be in great shape for the election. I'm pretty confident about everything that were doing,” DeJoy told The Associated Press ahead of an official rundown Thursday of election mail practices. “The American people should be confident.”

It's a far cry from four years ago, when DeJoy, just a few months into the job, was being criticized as a Donald Trump crony who was dismantling mail-processing machines and removing blue postal boxes to undermine the election as Trump, the president at the time, sowed distrust in the Postal Service. Despite being excoriated, DeJoy’s Postal Service performed admirably under a crush of mail-in votes during the pandemic.

If there was any lesson learned from the painful experience, he said, it was that the Postal Service needed to be bolder in its messaging.

“We have to be louder than the noise in communicating how well we’re going to do and that things are going to be OK. Things are going to be good. We’re in a better operating position than we ever have been,” he said.

U.S. Postal Service officials briefed news reporters Thursday on measures that are being taken to ensure election mail reaches its destinations, building on its performance in 2020, when 97.9% of ballots were returned to election officials within three days, and in 2022, when 98.9% of election mail was delivered within three days. DeJoy said he'd like to inch closer to 100% this election cycle.

The lack of drama is a welcome relief from four years ago, when the Postal Service was dogged by backlogs and accusations of voter suppression ahead of the 2020 presidential election, in which more than 135 million ballots were delivered to and from voters.

DeJoy was criticized for restricting overtime payments for postal workers and stopping the agency’s longtime practice of allowing late and extra truck deliveries in the summer of 2020. And the previously scheduled dismantling of dozens of mail-sorting machines and removal of blue boxes, corresponding with a massive drop in first-class mail, provided additional fuel to critics. The postmaster general, who was a major donor to Trump, was thought to be on thin ice, especially with the election of Democratic President Joe Biden.

“It was sensationalized. It scared the hell out of the American people,” DeJoy said.

Reflecting on the period, he said the accusations were “just crazy” and especially frustrating as he worked seven days a week after taking over an organization that was going to run out of cash in 60 days.

“We got through that. The organization performed extremely well. After that, I began working with both sides of the aisle. My main mission now is to make this place better. And we have made this place better,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a frequent critic of changes under DeJoy, said Thursday that he's confident Postal Service workers will “will ensure every ballot cast by mail is safely and securely delivered.” But the Virginia Democrat also said that oversight is important and that "Congress must remain vigilant on decisions made by the postmaster general in the days leading up to this election.”

The Postal Service is proceeding with a 10-year, $40 billion Postal Service modernization plan in which it's renovating aging facilities, opening modern regional hubs in Georgia, Virginia, Oregon and elsewhere, and starting the process of purchasing 100,000 vehicles to replace older delivery trucks dating to 1987. The next-generation delivery vehicle was displayed Thursday at a separate event in Indiana that was aimed at promoting the Postal Service's investments.

The Postal Service also showed that it can make adjustments when it abandoned a criticized plan to reroute Reno, Nevada-area mail processing to Sacramento, California, that had created an uproar among northern Nevada residents.

If there's anything the public can do to help, DeJoy said, it would be to avoid procrastination when it comes to mailing ballots. “Vote early! If you’re using the mail, help us out,” he said.