Sen. Mike Braun: Ignore USPS conspiracy theories – there are safe, easy, reliable ways to vote

While Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Democrats try to politicize the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for electoral gain, as a Main Street entrepreneur who spent 37 years running a logistics company, I can tell you firsthand about the challenges posed by a surge of packages that need to be instantly delivered, and the innovative solutions that individual states have already used to facilitate early voting in a safe and reliable method. 

First, the Postal Service currently has cash reserves to remain liquid through 2021. They were recently awarded a $10 billion loan through the CARES Act and President Trump has established a task force that developed recommendations on how to improve the Postal Service’s financial situation. 

Despite those facts, whatever your opinion about the financial situation of the Postal Service, no amount of money will create a magic wand for the post office to instantly handle a surge in demand for millions of ballots to be delivered in a timely manner for the first week of November.  

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If you need proof, remember that during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, Amazon and its vaunted two-day shipping saw massive delays due to surges in demand. Private carriers such as FedEx and UPS recently warned that they could not handle a surge in demand. 

At his hearing on Friday, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson that “a substantial portion” of a recent dip in service from USPS has been due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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In May, USPS sent guidance to local and state election officials around the country on mail process times, proper labeling and avoiding delivery delays. During Christmastime, they recommend sending packages nearly a week before Christmas to ensure it arrives on time.    

Due to Democrats’ latest election-rigging conspiracy theory that the postmaster general was installed to hobble the post office in order to steal the election, USPS will be suspending all operational changes until after the election.

Despite this theory being absurd (the postmaster general is not selected by the president and, as DeJoy noted at the Senate hearing on Friday, he has not discussed Postal Service operations with President Trump), now no operational changes that could help USPS handle surges will happen before the election.

And though the post office frequently moves mailboxes to increase efficiency as mail volume changes, now – due to social media panic egged on by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden claiming “they’re going around literally with tractor-trailers picking up mailboxes” – USPS will stop moving mailboxes until after the election.

From what we’ve seen during Christmas surges and the COVID-19 lockdown, and what we’ve heard from our top private logistics and shipping companies, it’s clear that – no matter how much money Congress throws at the problem – it’s just not possible for our country to have a safe, accurate and timely election through the vote-by-mail system that Pelosi and her liberal colleagues want.

It is extremely easy to vote early or vote absentee in the United States. 

Thankfully for those who would like to vote early, every state has already facilitated an early-vote or absentee-voting process to ensure no American is disenfranchised, while verifying that the ballots cast are less likely to be fraudulent.  

For example, in Indiana, any Hoosier can vote in person by visiting their local courthouse starting on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020 – four weeks before Election Day. For those who do not want to vote in person, any Hoosier can submit an absentee ballot request if any one of 12 reasons applies to them, including being over the age of 65, not being able to leave your residence due to health concerns, and that you may be out of town on Election Day.   

It is extremely easy to vote early or vote absentee in the United States. Absentee ballot programs requiring a reason like in Indiana are present in eight states. In 33 states, no reason is needed at all to request an absentee ballot. However, what is incredibly reckless and a threat to our democracy is for any state to send out ballots that are not requested.

For example, in Clark County, Nev. – home of Las Vegas – it was just reported that more than 220,000 actual ballots were returned because they were undeliverable. Nevada has always been a top battleground state. In fact, in 1998 Sen. Harry Reid won reelection by 428 votes. Imagine how just a handful – let alone hundreds of thousands – of undeliverable ballots could sway an election.

Meanwhile, two months ago in New York City, 80,000 mail-in ballots – 20 percent of the ballots cast – were disqualified because they were never received on time or failed to receive a postmark, along with other issues.   

It’s important that all Americans who are eligible vote this November, and thankfully we have numerous early-vote methods that have proven to work and do not require us to send out ballots to voters who do not request them.  

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As Dr. Anthony Fauci,  director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Aug.15, as long as guidelines are followed and social distancing measures are in place, in-person voting in November is safe.

Again, as someone who has spent his entire career in transportation, logistics and shipping, my advice to all Americans is to either vote early in person, make sure to send in your absentee ballots weeks before the election so that it arrives in time, or vote in person on Election Day.

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