Since taking over the U.S. Postal Service in June, Greensboro businessman Louis DeJoy has made a number of changes, including a sweeping shake-up of top executives last week. And in an effort to make the organization more financially stable, he’s cut overtime and said late-arriving mail will now be left behind by carriers and delivered the next day.
Critics, including some Republicans, say that will hurt the Postal Service in the long term. And congressional Democrats are worried the changes will slow the system down this fall, just as more Americans are planning to vote by mail because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They said they are planning an investigation of DeJoy’s changes.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Alma Adams of Charlotte said she thinks the DeJoy is trying to make it harder for people to get mail ballots.
“The mail is piling up, and the moves that he has made and the changes that he has made have really created problems in terms of our mail not getting out,” Adams said. “I think it’s a move to really dismantle the post office but also more than to disrupt this election.”
Adams and U.S. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon say DeJoy — a former CEO of a logistics company — should either step down or be replaced.
“He might be a businessman, but what does he know about the post office?" Adams said. "He doesn’t have any background there. The only thing that I think they had in common is that – other than being a businessman – is that Mr. DeJoy has been a major contributor to the Trump campaign.”
DeJoy had been the chief fundraiser for the Republican National Convention.
In Mecklenburg County, just under 29,000 people voted absentee by mail in the 2016 presidential election. The elections director says there could be as many as 100,000 mail ballots in November.
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