State and local election officials from across the country on Wednesday warned that problems with the nation’s mail delivery system threaten to disenfranchise voters in the upcoming presidential election, telling the head of the U.S. Postal Service that it hasn’t fixed persistent deficiencies.

In an alarming letter, the officials said that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.

      • snooggums@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I don’t think people are being duped, they just don’t understand the concept of shifting the Overton window.

        This ratcheting image is way easier for mechanically inclined people to understand. Hope it catches on.

    • curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      So, an actual answer if you’re interested.

      No, the President does not have the power to remove him. When the Post Office was reformed into USPS in the 1970’s, the selection of Postmaster General is made by the Board of Governors of the Postal Service. These board members have 7 year terms, and are appointed by the President, with Senate approval.

      The Postmaster General has no fixed term, and serves until the Board decides otherwise.

      There are 9 members of the Board, and no more than 5 can be from the same party. The Postmaster General and Deputy Postmaster General are also voting members of the Board, though there are some things they can’t vote on.

      Removing requires an absolute majority - so even though a quorum is 6, there needs to be 5 votes to remove DeJoy.

      No member of the Board can serve more than 2 terms, and they can’t be removed without a gross violation - misconduct for example.

      So despite the spongebob meme reference reply near mine, no, Biden can’t just remove DeJoy.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        there needs to be 5 votes to remove DeJoy.

        Five Biden appointees are now serving on the board, and have been since 2022. If Biden wanted DeJoy gone, he would be gone because Biden would’ve picked appointees who opposed him. Clearly, that didn’t happen, so clearly, Biden doesn’t actually care as much as we want him to.

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Thanks for the reply. I’m pretty sure I read that some of the board has already been replaced by Biden, but it sounds like it’s still not enough to oust this jackass. What a mess.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I think it’s pretty fucking clear that letting a postmaster general intentionally destroy and disrupt the USPS is a gross violation and obvious misconduct. It’s like if I just started deleting repos and databases and service clusters and backups at my job. I’d be fired for cause immediately. The fact that they don’t means they must be on the take, in one way or another.