| Dear, This year, California is sending every voter a ballot so that the global pandemic does not result in historic levels of voter disenfransment.(1) Voters across the nation are requesting ballots to vote from home. Applications for mail-in ballots in swing states like Michigan and Ohio are skyrocketing.(2) But Trump's political appointee in charge of the U.S. Postal Service, Louis DeJoy, is using his authority to thwart voters' attempts to vote safely by mail. DeJoy is claiming to suspend his sweeping mail slow-down, but he won't commit to undoing the damage already done or return the post office to full strength.(3) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has recalled Congress to address Trump's plan to destroy vote-by-mail by killing the post office, but she won't succeed we don't have a huge grassroots swell to make it happen.(4) We need to demand that Congress fund the Postal Service and allow the post office to get our mail -- and our ballots -- to us on time. The post office has been notoriously underfunded for more than a decade. Unlike any other agency, the Postal Service is required to keep on hand 75 years' worth of pension funding -- a nefarious requirement passed by George W. Bush's Congress in order to drive the service into bankruptcy.(5) The postal service got around this ploy to destroy it by depending more and more on overtime rather than hiring new people. Now, 20% of mail is delivered during overtime hours.(6) Meanwhile, Trump has been trying to stop vote-by-mail efforts, as voting from home make voting easier and safer during the pandemic and raise people's likelihood to cast their ballots.(7) He has falsely called vote-by-mail fraudulent and called on states to stop it, but many have actually made it simpler to request absentee ballots.(8) DeJoy is ordered mail sorting machines to be shut down and delivery routes to be shortened, and he won't say if he'll put the machines back or reinstate the original routes. In many states, ballots must reach the board of elections by Election Day, and will not be counted if they show up late.(9) It's not hard to see how a nationwide mail delay could have dire effects on mail-in voting. We need to send as many signatures as possible to Congress asking our representatives to full fund the Postal Service and stop Trump's plan. Click here to sign our petition today! Yours in the fight for our democracy, Jay, along with Angela, Anne, Brian, Caitlin, Deepthi, Gabby, Irene, Lindsay, Molly, Raquel, and Scottie (the Courage team) Footnotes:  |
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