Postal slowdown sparks claims of plot to undermine US vote

US President Donald Trump has threatened to block extra funding to the USPS

AFP
AFP
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Erica Koesler, left, and David Haerle, both of Los Angeles, demonstrate outside a USPS post office, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.
Erica Koesler, left, and David Haerle, both of Los Angeles, demonstrate outside a USPS post office, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Ahead of the November 3 elections in which millions of voters are expected to cast ballots by mail due to the coronavirus, US President Donald Trump has leveled an unprecedented attack on the United State Postal Service.

Trump has threatened to block extra funding to the USPS, insisting that an increase in mail-in voting would lead to fraud in the November 3 election. 

"They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump told Fox News on Thursday, adding, "But if they don't get those... that means you can't have universal mail-in voting." 

With some states expanding mail-in options because of the pandemic, an estimated three-quarters of Americans will be able to vote from home this fall.

Trump said Saturday that increased mail-in voting would be a "catastrophe."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said she would recall the House of Representatives from its summer recess to vote this week on an act "to save the Postal Service."

Pelosi and fellow senior Democrat Chuck Schumer also called for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a recent Trump appointee, to appear before an "urgent hearing" of the House oversight committee.

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