Louis DeJoy: Head of Postal Service promises ballots will be delivered on time but refuses to reverse changes causing massive delays

The head of the US postal service said there would be “no issue” with its ability to handle election mail in a tense Congressional hearing called to answer concerns from Democrats over widespread mail delays.

Since his appointment as postmaster general in May, Louis DeJoy has overseen a number of sweeping changes to working practices in the postal service which have caused backlogs across the country.

Those changes came at the same time as Donald Trump began almost daily attacks on the integrity of mail-in ballots, and when the president had admitted to holding up emergency stimulus funding for the post office to limit their use.

Those events provoked suspicion among some Democrats that Mr DeJoy, a major Trump donor, was engaged in an effort to sabotage the postal service ahead of an election in which record numbers are expected to vote by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr DeJoy rejected as “outrageous” the suggestion that he was intentionally slowing mail-in ballots and insisted the changes he has overseen were “routine”.

"As we head into the election season, I want to assure this committee and the American public that the Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation’s election mail securely and on-time. This sacred duty is my number one priority between now and Election Day," he said.

In his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal erupted, Mr DeJoy said he would not bring back mail-sorting machines that have been pulled from service in recent weeks, saying they were not needed.

After he took the job in June, Mr DeJoy imposed reductions in overtime, cuts in retail hours and restrictions on extra mail transportation trips that resulted in widespread delays nationwide.

Mr DeJoy said the decisions to remove sorting machines and mailboxes had been already underway and were a routine response to changes in mail volume, which has dropped during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr DeJoy, who has donated millions of dollars to Trump and other Republicans, said he has not spoken with the Trump campaign or White House Staff Mark Meadows about postal service operations. He said postal workers will deliver 95 percent of election mail within three days, as they did in the 2018 congressional elections.

He added that he would personally vote by mail.

"The American people should feel comfortable that the Postal Service will deliver on this election," he told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Senator Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he had received more than 7,500 reports of mail delays from people in his home state of Michigan.

"If you plan to continue pursuing these kinds of changes, I think my colleagues, and many of our constituents, will continue to question whether you are the right person to lead this indispensable public institution," Peters said.

— With agencies