Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may have to testify under oath about his agency’s failure to follow court orders to avoid delivery disruptions for mail-in ballots during the election.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington said at a hearing Wednesday that he was “shocked” at the behavior, including not completing a mandatory sweep of mail-processing facilities to look for undelivered ballots by 3 p.m. on Election Day.
“At some point, the postmaster is either going to have to be deposed or appear before me and testify under oath,” Sullivan said. “The court has been very clear that it expects full compliance” with its orders.
Sullivan blasted the U.S. Postal Service’s legal team for failing to notify him promptly once the agency realized it couldn’t meet the deadline he set for conducting the sweep of facilities in more than a dozen troubled regions, including many in Democratic-leaning urban areas or swing states.
“The court would have been very sensitive to any complaints that it was impossible to comply with the order,” Sullivan said. “It just leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth for the clock to run out, game over. There was not compliance with a very important court order.”
The court-ordered sweep related to USPS facilities in Democratic strongholds like Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Houston, as well as battleground states such as Arizona and Florida. The facilities that were singled out were suffering from substandard performance for delivery of election mail, according to data that the USPS was required to file regularly with the court.
It’s clear that DeJoy was appointed solely to undermine the USPS leading up to the presidential election. With the anticipation of unprecedented mail in ballots, sorting machines were taken out of service, collection boxes removed, necessary overtime refused,( not to be confused with abuse of overtime) . Add all these factors with inept management a Postal embarrassment results. Who wasn’t able to see that more manpower would be needed, current and COA would and should be updated. Unfortunately the past months did expose the need for the USPS to get out of the 1950’s.
Pittsburgh,Pa
Branch 84
The man that “bought ” his job is just like his leader, he does what ever he wants. He doesn’t care about any judges order, he only cares about what he can get away with. So 150 thousand absentee ballots were not delivered on time. that means those citizens vote might not be counted. MR. Big Stuff is responsible. Bargaining unit employees are always disciplined, time to go after the big time operators!
It’s clear to me that DeJoy was appointed solely to undermine the USPS leading up to the election. With the anticipation of unprecedented mail in ballots, sorting machines were taken out of service, collection boxes removed, necessary overtime refused ( not to be confused with abuse of overtime, you know who you are ). Add all these factors together with an inept management and the resulting mis management occurred. Who wasn’t able to predict more manpower would be needed , and current and updated addresses would be necessary. Unfortunately the past months did expose the need for the USPS to climb out of the 1950’s. Now I’m done….
Postal management never pays the price. No matter what they do they always walk away free. In Richmond, VA. a carrier was placed on removal because of failure to maintain schedule. The union steward investigated and found that the stupidvisors removed time from the clock rings. what happened? The Prickmaster retired and the stupidvisors involved were moved to other stations. Big punishment! Our ” very stable genius leader” gets away with everything he does.