Politics

The head of the Postal Service still doesn’t understand mail voting

Published

2 years ago

November 12, 2024

The head of the Postal Service still doesn’t understand mail voting

Four years ago, many Americans were outraged to learn that the U.S. Postal Service was cutting services, even as Donald Trump was making baseless claims about vote-by-mail.

Genuine concerns among Democrats over the possibility of mail ballots’ being rejected for late delivery began to bleed into conspiracy theories about Trump-appointed Postmaster General Louis DeJoya North Carolina businessman who donated more than $685,000 to help put on the 2020 Republican National Convention.

In the end, the Postal Service performed admirablydespite the surge in mail voting and the difficult circumstances. DeJoy was not, as some feared, a Trump lackey looking to tear down your local post office in order to hand the election to his favored candidate — but more of a run-of-the-mill Republican appointee with an obsession for cutting costs and a tin ear for politics.

His response was so tone-deaf he’d be kicked off “America’s Got Talent” if he were singing it.

As if to underline the point, he resurfaced in August to reassure voters that the Postal Service is ready to handle mail ballots in this year’s presidential election. A reporter with The Associated Press asked whether he had learned anything from overseeing the crush of mail ballots in 2020, and his response was so tone-deaf he’d be kicked off “America’s Got Talent” if he were singing it.

Echoing every clueless executive trying to explain something away, DeJoy said the Postal Service needed to be bolder in its messaging.

“We have to be louder than the noise in communicating how well we’re going to do and that things are going to be OK. Things are going to be good. We’re in a better operating position than we ever have been,” he said.

To be fair, DeJoy has a point. The Postal Service is on more solid financial footing than it’s been in years, thanks in part to his helping shepherd an overhaul through Congress. And vote-by-mail remains a great way to cast your ballotespecially if you work long hours or take care of young children and might find it difficult to get to a polling place on Election Day.

A Postal Service watchdog and a group of state elections officials have recently raised concerns about how the agency is training workers in handling mail ballots.

But a Postal Service watchdog and a bipartisan group of state elections officials have recently raised concerns about how the agency is training workers in handling mail ballots. These are legitimate concerns raised by serious people — definitely not “noise” that can be addressed by being “louder.” And DeJoy should respond by making an immediate, agencywide push to address them and reassure the public.

First, in July, the Postal Service inspector general released an audit of its “election mail readiness” for the November election, which found inconsistent training and handling of mail ballots that could lead to some ballots’ being rejected. To be clear, the report found that 97% of election and political mail was processed on time, so we’re not talking about undermining democracy here. But this is an area where the goal should be 100%. No one should have their ballots thrown out because the local mail carrier didn’t read the employee handbook closely.

Then, on Wednesday, the National Association of Secretaries of State, a nonpartisan group of top state elections officials, sent DeJoy a six-page letter saying they had “serious questions” about lost or delayed election mail that could lead to some ballots’ not being counted in November.

“We implore you to take immediate and tangible corrective action to address the ongoing performance issues,” they wrote.

It’s important to understand the broader context here. One of the issues raised by the inspector general’s report was that some postal workers didn’t know that they were supposed to postmark mail ballots, which are handled differently from regular mail. But a number of states won’t accept mail ballots that don’t have legible postmarks, which is considered proof that the ballots were sent before Election Day. And in a close election, you can bet that some enterprising Trump supporter will raise conspiracy theories about unpostmarked ballots and sue to try to get them thrown out.

The worst-case scenario is that an election is decided by whether or not those ballots are counted. But even in the best-case scenario, the fight needlessly undermines trust in the election and hurts the Postal Service’s reputation.

The Postal Service is just a piece of this puzzle. American elections would be better served if lawmakers didn’t set unnecessarily restrictive rules for perceived political advantage, candidates didn’t spread conspiracy theories, lawyers didn’t try to get legitimate ballots thrown out for spurious reasons and postal workers were all trained in how to handle mail ballots properly.

If you’re a voter, you can do your part by casting your mail ballot early (don’t wait until the final week before Election Day!) and carefully (make sure to sign the envelope!) or using a ballot drop box where available.

But in the absence of all of that, DeJoy should make sure that the Postal Service is doing everything it can to get mail ballots delivered on time. Talking louder isn’t enough.

Ryan Teague Beckwith

Ryan Teague Beckwith is a newsletter editor for BLN. He has previously worked for such outlets as Time magazine, Bloomberg News and CQ Roll Call. He teaches journalism at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies.

Politics

‘I think Alaska’s turning blue’: Republicans fret Sullivan’s path to reelection

Published

21 hours ago

October 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

WASILLA, Alaska — Three weeks out from Election Day, President Donald Trump took a helicopter to a plane to another helicopter to a motorcade to an ice hockey rink in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley, traversing nearly 4,000 miles over more than eight hours to turn out his base here to help Republicans defend the Senate.

But Trump’s trek might not be enough to save Sen. Dan Sullivan, who’s running in a tougher-than-expected race against Democrat Mary Peltola in a state where the president’s approval rating is underwater and independents outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.

Alaska strategists and voters who spoke to Blue Light News acknowledged that Sullivan faces a difficult path to reelection, despite Trump’s time investment and the outside money pouring in.

“Very conservative MAGA voters can’t vote for you harder,” said Scott Kendall, a veteran political strategist who worked on two of Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s campaigns and was chief of staff to former Alaska Gov. Bill Walker. “Donald Trump’s support in this current climate is both a blessing and a curse.”

Even some Trump supporters at the Tuesday night rally admitted the outlook appeared bleak.

“I think Alaska’s turning blue,” said Matt Niessink, a 45-year-old general contractor from Wasilla. He said he had voted for Trump three times and planned to support Republicans this year.

What did he wish the president would do differently? “I wish he’d shut his mouth sometimes and not be such a pompous ass,” Niessink said.

The president was in Wasilla — population 10,556 — because the outlook is darkening for his party in a state he carried by 13 points just two years ago. In a midterm year defined by the cost of gas and groceries, the Last Frontier has been hit particularly hard, with the average price of diesel nearing $7 per gallon. In the Senate race, Peltola is flush with cash and leads Sullivan in most polls. MAGA Inc., the cash-rich Trump-aligned super PAC, is increasingly focusing on Alaska as one in a slate of states that can help Republicans hold the Senate.

Enter Trump, who has been spending the cycle’s crucial final weeks holding rallies in red states to juice support among his base, which tends to see depressed turnout in years when he’s not on the ballot.

“That was a lot of flying,” the president said at the top of his remarks. “In fact, they were thinking about canceling. They said, ‘Sir, you’re very busy, this is very tough.’” But, Trump continued, he refused to cancel for a state he won three times.

Echoing his comments at other red-state rallies, Trump asked the roaring crowd for “one big favor” — to “pretend that I’m on the ballot, because every time I’ve been on the ballot, we win.” He repeated his promise that Americans will receive $5,000 dividends if Republicans hold both chambers.

“What this is about is getting out the vote,” Sullivan told reporters before Trump’s speech. “A rising tide of enthusiasm lifts all the candidates.”

Unlike some other Republican candidates in tight races, Sullivan has shied away from distancing himself from the least popular aspects of Trump’s presidency.

Sullivan proclaimed on stage at the rally that “the conflict in the Middle East is temporary. The true forever war is the national Democrats’ war against Alaska oil and gas and our jobs.” And although a campaign aide released a statement condemning Trump’s move to import Russian diesel, Sullivan did not join four of his Republican Senate colleagues, including Murkowski, who called on Trump to reverse the decision.

Art Hackney, a veteran Republican strategist in Alaska, said that “most of the people who support” Sullivan “think that he should” break more with the president.

Hackney, who runs a pro-Sullivan super PAC called “We Stand with Dan,” attributed that choice to loyalty — but suggested the president’s demand of fealty, and treatment of frequent dissenter Murkowski, could also be part of Sullivan’s calculus.

“A lot of his longtime supporters and the people who are in the industries that would benefit from that wish he would be more blunt,” Hackney said. “But with what Murkowski has done, if Dan did something considered a disrespectful trigger or something, what do you think would happen? It could well have implications for things that affect Alaska’s economy.”

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Politics

In private, top Republicans believe the House is a lost cause

Published

1 day ago

October 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Some top congressional Republicans have privately concluded that it is likely impossible for them to keep control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, and they are now focused on limiting the scale of the defeat and salvaging the party’s Senate majority.

Five senior Republican lawmakers, all granted anonymity to speak candidly about their party’s dire position, told Blue Light News the House had all but slipped away.

One senior House Republican said the GOP’s goal at this point was to “save as many Republican seats as we can.” The president, this person said, was not helping.

“President Trump has made this election all about himself,” the lawmaker said. “Now we have to survive that political storm.”

A second Republican member of Congress said the movement of campaign advertising made plain which side was in control of the midterms. This lawmaker predicted Democrats would pick up about 10 seats, more than enough to take control of the chamber.

Even in newly redistricted red states like Florida and Texas, this person said, Republican candidates were “hanging on with their fingernails.”

Republicans have already fallen back from several contested House districts that they feel are no longer winnable, including those held by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey. Trump carried their districts just two years ago. The party last week gave up on an Omaha-based district held by retiring Rep. Don Bacon.

Trump officials and other top GOP operatives say more candidates may be cut off in the coming days, in order to shift advertising money to races where it can make more of a difference. Republican groups have already given up on multiple races where they once hoped to unseat Democratic lawmakers.

The Republican Party is under extreme pressure across the Midwest, where it is now spending heavily to defend Senate seats in once-reliably MAGA states like Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.

Bacon, a maverick often at odds with the White House, said there was no mystery in his party’s political tribulations.

“I’ve talked to some who are making these decisions: The biggest problem is the president’s polling numbers and unfavorables,” Bacon said.

White House officials insist they’re not giving up on either chamber of Congress. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said Trump remained “committed to maintaining Republican majorities in both the House and Senate.”

As he departed on Tuesday to campaign in Alaska for embattled GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, Trump professed optimism about the midterms but acknowledged that sitting presidents typically see their party lose seats in the off year.

“But I’m doing a tour right now and I’m doing rallies,” Trump added. “The level of enthusiasm for the Republican Party is way up.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson went even further, flatly declaring during a campaign stop in deep-red Texas that “the polling is wrong” in showing his party on the brink of a broad defeat.

Yet at a tactical level, the Republican Party’s moves to shift money away from defending the House and toward saving the Senate are clear enough. In recent days, the Congressional Leadership Fund, the top super PAC for House Republicans, canceled advertising for key House candidates in Nebraska and Iowa and allowed the Senate Leadership Fund – a Republican group focused on the upper chamber – to swoop in and claim the airtime to support Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running for Senate in Iowa.

“These are not the moves of a party that’s going to keep the House,” a third Republican lawmaker said.

In statements to Blue Light News, both CLF and the National Republican Congressional Committee said they had no intention of giving up on the fight for control of the House.

NRCC spokesperson Mike Marinella said districts are won “one by one,” and that the GOP has “the financial firepower and ground game needed to win.”

Chris Winkelman, president of CLF, said his group would keep moving money around to maximize the impact nationally.

The goal, he said, was to “keep the pressure on the most vulnerable Democrats and preserve a path to 218 seats.”

Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Florida Republican who lost his swing seat in Trump’s first midterm election eight years ago, said his former colleagues were clear-eyed about where the election seemed to be headed.

“The environment is about as tough as one could expect,” Curbelo said. “There is no one who has privately stated that they believe Republicans can hold the House — not in recent weeks, anyway.”

Megan Messerly, Lauren Fedor, Lisa Kashinsky and Myah Ward contributed to this report.

Politics

Ossoff says he has ‘zero interest in running for president’

Published

2 days ago

October 14, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff said Tuesday he will not run for president in 2028 and committed to serving a full six-year Senate term if reelected.

“I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for reelection to the Senate,” Ossoff said during a Georgia Senate debate against Republican Rep. Mike Collins.

Asked by Greg Bluestein of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution whether he would serve his full term if he wins in November, Ossoff replied: “Yes, I will.”

The remarks are Ossoff’s most forceful rejection yet of a potential 2028 presidential bid even as his name has repeatedly surfaced in national Democrats’ conversations about possible contenders for the party’s nomination. His public commitment to a full Senate term on Tuesday is the latest of his campaign’s many efforts to tamp down that speculation.

Ossoff gained national attention this year given his strong fundraising numbers, his consistent lead in public polling against Collins and his ability to generate viral moments on the campaign trail, particularly through his attacks on President Donald Trump. Democrats are bullish about Ossoff’s ability to hold onto his Senate seat — so much so that the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC said Tuesday it was removing its ad spending in Georgia for the week.

He’s also taken steps to boost the state Democratic party in Georgia, a perennial battleground that has been and will be key to winning the presidency. If November brings historic wins up and down the ballot, Ossoff will get some of the credit — and he’ll have confirmed his status as a leader in the swing state.