The GOP’s Sabotage of USPS Delays Medicine Deliveries by Weeks, Could Block Arrival of Critical Supplies in Derecho Aftermath

Running scared of her record and growing more desperate by the week, Senator Joni Ernst has refused to condemn the GOP’s dangerous, unprecedented effort to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service in order to disenfranchise swaths of voters amid a pandemic.

After the White House installed GOP mega-donor Louis DeJoy as head of the USPS, Republican leaders have worked to systematically gut postal delivery in the White House’s explicit mission to “make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots.” Senator Ernst and the GOP Senate even rejected the Postal Service’s $25 billion request for COVID-19 relief in order to continue standard operations.

As a result of the GOP sabotage, Iowa postal workers are sounding alarms that mail processing machines are being removed and deliveries are “beginning to pile up.” Veterans are also facing weeks-long delays to mail-delivered prescription drugs, and Social Security checks have been delayed for seniors. The sabotage could also add another roadblock to the delivery of critical supplies in the derecho aftermath.

“Let’s call this what it is: Senator Ernst is silently standing behind her party’s partisan effort to break our election system in order to disenfranchise voters and win in November,” said Jeremy Busch, Iowa Democratic Party spokesperson. “The United States Postal Service should not be political. But as her party works to dismantle this democratic institution, Senator Ernst’s silence is the mark of a Washington politician running scared from her failed record and hoping voters won’t hold her accountable. Once again, Iowans are paying the price for Senator Ernst putting her party first in Washington – no matter the costs.”

Even some of Ernst’s fellow vulnerable GOP incumbents have spoken out against the dangerous effort. Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins sent a letter to Postmaster General DeJoy urging him to “promptly address” the delays that specifically hurt seniors, veterans, and rural communities.

Senator Ernst previously said she “didn’t have a problem” with Iowa’s record-breaking primary election that was conducted predominately by mail – but her refusal to stand up to her own party’s attacks on Iowa’s absentee voter system proves her words to be yet another display of election-year hypocrisy.