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“Supporting the Post Office is a patriotic act,” one event organizer wrote. “It is enshrined in Article 1 of our Constitution as an America right. It is also one of the largest employers of Veterans in the country.”
On Friday, Americans watched Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee about slow mail delivery ahead of the presidential election.
On Saturday, they’ll show up to post offices around the country to show their support. Dozens of Save the Post Office rallies are scheduled across Pennsylvania, starting at 11 a.m.
Since DeJoy, a major donor to the Trump campaign, got appointed to his position earlier this year, the USPS has made a number of changes—prohibiting overtime for postal service employees and removing mail sorting machines—that have slowed down mail delivery. Both of these policies are causing delays to mail service that could greatly affect the upcoming election.
In a July 29 letter from the general counsel of the U.S. Postal Service, Thomas Marshall warned Pennsylvania officials that the state’s mail-in ballot deadlines are “incongruous” with the postal service’s delivery standards. The letter implied that if voters didn’t mail in their ballots a week before the deadline, it might not be counted.
RELATED: Timeline: All the Ways Trump Is Trying to Make It Harder to Vote by Mail in PA
One of those Save the Post Office events will take place at the post office in Coatesville.
“Donald Trump and his new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy have been working to undermine our post office, including slowing the mail and warning states not to count on the post office,” organizers Nydea Graves and Paul Trizonis write on Facebook. “This is a transparent attempt at voter suppression—to try to make it harder for ballots to be counted, and to scare people away from voting by mail—standard practice for millions of voters for years and an essential option during this pandemic.”
The organizer of the rally in Ambler urged people to participate, saying, “Supporting the Post Office is a patriotic act. It is enshrined in Article 1 of our Constitution as an America right. It is also one of the largest employers of Veterans in the country.”
The Lansdale Equality Coalition echoed the call: “Let’s stand in solidarity and let the world know that our post office is not a political pawn!!”
To find and participate in an event near you, visit SavethePostOffice.net and type in your zip code.
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