The United States Postal Service is shutting down and removing mail sorting machines that are crucial for processing absentee ballots for the upcoming 2020 election in November, according to Vice website Motherboard. There have been 19 mail sorting machines from five processing facilities across the U.S. that have been removed or are scheduled to be shut down.
The USPS has not released any official statements to their employees about the removal of the machines, with Iowa Postal Workers Union President Kimberly Karol telling Motherboard, "I’m not sure you’re going to find an answer for why [the machines being removed] makes sense because we haven’t figured that out either."
USPS spokesperson David Partenheimer later responded to the situation, stating, "The Postal Service routinely moves equipment around its network as necessary to match changing mail and package volumes. Package volume is up, but mail volume continues to decline. Adapting our processing infrastructure to the current volumes will ensure more efficient, cost-effective operations and better service for our customers."
This comes after President Trump told Fox Business on Thursday (August 12) morning that he would block additional funding and election assistance for the USPS to sabotage mail-in voting. He stated, "They want $25 billion — billion — for the post office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now, in the meantime, they aren't getting there. By the way, those are just two items. But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting ... because they're not equipped."
Source: Vice.com
