Washington D.C. (May 17, 2024) | Today, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) released the following statement detailing his efforts to secure additional commitments from the United States Postal Service (USPS) on its election integrity efforts.
“As we get closer to the 2024 elections, all Georgians deserve to have their election mail handled properly and reliably. I am pleased to see USPS taking action to address this, and reaffirming their commitment to election integrity. I will continue to work closely with USPS to ensure all operational breakdowns and service disruptions are remedied as quickly as possible.”
As part of Rep. Loudermilk’s efforts in holding the USPS accountable for its reorganization and delays, the USPS responded to his inquiries by detailing several performance enhancing efforts they will undertake in Georgia, focused on election mail, including:
Require supervisors at all retail units (individual post offices) to check and certify that any election mail has been dispatched and ready for transport.
Provide on-site training for all postal employees on how to properly handle election mail.
All Georgia processing facilities will institute a certification process to ensure that all election mail goes through processing as intended, including special plans to identify and isolate ballots early in the process.
Routine inspections will be conducted at all loading docks and machines to ensure all ballots are cleared.
From May 17-21, all completed ballots collected by carriers, received at retail counters, or retrieved from collection boxes, will be separated from regular mail for special delivery.
Through May 21, the USPS’s Inspection Service will conduct election mail inspections at all Georgia processing plants.
USPS will allocate special pickup times at various processing locations and coordinate those efforts with Boards of Elections.
Updates on Rep. Loudermilk’s Postal Service Efforts
Additionally, Rep. Loudermilk continues to press USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on the current state of mail service delivery in Georgia in the wake of significant delays and operational breakdowns, as well as a detailed explanation for alleged fraud at the Marietta Post Office.
On March 20,2024, Rep. Loudermilk joined Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock on a letter to USPS Postmaster General DeJoy regarding mail theft at the Marietta Post Office.
Received a response on April 8, 2024, from USPS stating an Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation was ongoing. Currently, no new updates have transpired in this effort.
On April 15, 2024, Rep. Loudermilk led a letter with the Georgia Republican Congressional Delegation urging Postmaster General DeJoy to adequately address USPS delays and operations issues.
Received a six-page response from USPS on April 22, 2024.
On April 16, 2024, Rep. Loudermilk joined Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) in a letter urging USPS to halt all further postal consolidation.
In response received on May 17, 2024, USPS announced a pause on further consolidation throughout the country until January 1, 2025.
