The u. S. Postal service says if you vote by mail, there is a good chance that your vote will not be counted. The Washington Post reports the Postal Service warns 46 states and the District Of Columbia that they cannot guarantee all mailin ballots will arrive in time to be counted. 40 of those states including battleground states like michigan, pennsylvania were told, their longstanding deadlines for requesting returning or counting ballots welcome back incongruous with service and voter who is turn in ballots close to those deadlines may become disenfranchised. Every orange state on the map you see on the screen got that warning. That would impact about 186 million voters. This report comes just one day after President Trump openly said that he would not fund the u. S. Postal service in order to prevent mailin ballots. That would likely be cast for joe biden. And this is not some theoretical threat. We can literally see our ability to use the Postal Service slinging rigslin shrinking right before our eyes. Mailboxes are physically being removed, like these in new york. A New York Times reporter spotted in on a truck in manhattan. A for 31 mailboxes the Postal Service confirms it removed from two cities in oregon in the past weak, a for dozens of mailboxes are a moved from across the state of montana. Sit happening right in front of us. And there is a reason why the president doesnt want those votes to count. Here is what democratic Vice President ial nominee Kamala Harris had to say about it. Why dont they want us to vote . Why are they creating obstacles to us voting . Well, the answer is because when we vote, things change. When we vote, things get better. Joining me now for more on the Postal Services warning about mailin ballots is nbc News White House correspondent jeff bennet who has been covering the story on the ground. Jeff, thank you so much for being here this evening. My first question is, what are you seeing on the ground . What are these warnings from a variety of Postal Service in these states, and what does it mean . Yeah. Yeah, its great to see you. Lets break this down. Whats happening at the Postal Service to use the technical term is a confusing mess. Lets start with the warning to 46 out of 50 states that even if the voters in those states follow the rules, the deadlines, the guidelines, their ballot may not be receive in the time and their vote would be disqualified. Thats because the Postal Service is saying based on state deadlines there likely wont be sufficient time for the ballots to be sent out, received and sent back in. Its important to point out the Postal Service says they have the capacity to handle Election Year mail. When i saw that statement come out, i didnt necessarily believe it. I did the reporting. I talked to Postal Service workers, to Postal Service local Union President s and they all say across the board, theyre up to the job, they can handle the volume, the capacity. Whats causing the delays is a different issue entirely and they all point to the policy changes and budget cuts put in place by the new postmaster general, louis dejoy who before he came postmaster general was a Top Republican donor, a prolific trump donor and who had no Postal Service before he was tapped to lead the agency. The people i talked to say he views the Postal Service not as a service, but a business. Hes making these changes, he says, to make cuts and make the organization more solvent, but that is whats causing the delays and if they dont change will cause a lot of confusion and across the board disenfranchisement come election day. What about the reports about the sorting machines being remove from a variety of large cities . Is that because they want, you know, to lower the capacity for these precincts potentially to be able to count those mailin ballots . So this is an interesting question, because i obtained a internal usps Postal Service document that really pinpointed 671 of these high volume sorting machines from coast to coast that were slated for remove. Now, the Postal Service says that these machines are no longer needed in the areas where they are and theyre going to be removed and real located. So far, based on my conversations ive heard no instances of where these machines are being real located. Only instances of where theyre being taken out of, removed from. The Postal Service, whenever they get questions they point to, this is an issue of effectiveness and efficiency. I heard from one veteran now retired postal worker, 30 years on the job, and he says you cant get more efficient than these machines. Theyre designed to process 35,000 pieces of mail in an hour and spit it out with 95 accuracy so a Postal Service worker with take their bag and hit the streets this notion that the Postal Service has to take cuts to ramp up capacity just isnt on the helevel. Heres the fundamental question. What remains to be seen is whether louis dejoy is making these changes because hes doing the bidding of President Trump, if hes trying to make a selffulfilling prophesy where the president is conspiracy mongering and raising unfounded attacks on the Postal Service, and he has his long time ally to do the work, or if dejoy, a successful North Carolina businessman is coming into a Postal Service, a businesses he doesnt understand the history of and decided to make these changes and its oddly time odd to happen just as President Trump is making these unfounded attacks. Thats a question that we have not been able to answer based on our reporting. But setting aside dejoys motivation, the end result is the same. There are these delays where you have the Postal Service telling states, look, if people in your state want to vote, what theyre going to have to do is get these vot votes early and send them back early because if you wait too long it may not get back in time. Thats good advice. Thanks for joining us with the latest about whats going within with the United StatesPostal Service ahead of election. This is a story im sure this show will keep an eye on. Joining me now for more on how states are responding to the warning is Michigan State secretary. Thank you so much, secretary for being here this evening. My first question to you is about President Trump. You recently got into a bit of a scuffle with him because he accused you of mailing out illegally mailin ballots and you had to correct the record. In terms of impact of whats happening with the Postal Service, though, what is your response to the perceived attacks on the Postal Service from this administration . I think its incredibly disturbing and concerning that in this time of great uncertainty were in the middle of a global pandemic. More citizens on both sides of aisle are saying they want to vote safely from home this november. This is a time for the Postal Service to step up and show how it truly is a Service Organization and can meet the demands for the elect rat. For it to be going in the other direction, combining to make it more difficult for z krs to return and receive their ballots on time, leading up to the possible disenfranchisement of thousands of valid voter citizens across the country is disturbing, alarming and myself and secretaries of state all across the country are going to be pitting this with many others because at the end of the day we have the make sure every voice counts and every voice is heard. What are you and those other secretaries of state doing to fight back against these funding cuts and manipulations of the Postal Service . Well its a two pronged strategy. Weve asked to meet with the postmaster general to explain why this is a concern, how this is going to impact not just domestic delivery and return of ballots but international as well for our military Service Members and others overseas. And of course prescriptions and all the other reasons why we need to Postal Service to be reliable. Were trying to work with the Postal Service to address these issues but also creating a separate work around like drop boxes why i in michigan and colleagues are installing all across the country so citizens if they cant relay on the mail, theyll rely on our drop bocks which will be secured and monitors. Youre also going see an increase in ballot tracking mechanisms. We created this in michigan. Other states are doing this too, so citizens can track when their ballot has been sent to them and when its been received by their local election administrator to, again, give that confidence in the process when there are so many uncertainties challenging that confidence right now. How do we get young voters to participate in mailin voting . Its not as if mailin voting is something the Younger Voters have done all the time. Whats the strategy on the ground in michigan to ensure that young people are able to participate in really whats an unprecedented election process . Well, interestingly, in michigan, we saw a number of changes enact in the 2018 that enabled people to vote, in particular allowing people to register to vote on election day and doing so in their clerks office. Thats increased participation of 18yearolds and 19yearolds. On top of that, College Age Students as well as highly mobile young people who have been moving and going different places, were seeing them take advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail, because it ensures theyre able to get their ballot wherever they are and return it. But the key this year, especially with all these challenges with Postal Service is to do this early. Request your ballot as soon as you can, return it as soon as you can, and track it to make sure its received and counted. Thats really important, making sure that everyone knows that election day is not november 3rd if youre planning to mailin vote. You can figure out how to do that right this second. My last question to you is, whats your reaction to the fact that melania and the president themselves requested their absentee ballots recently, and yet they are saying that mailin balloting cannot be trusted . Whats your reaction to that . Yeah, first of all, theres zero difference between voting absentee and voting by mail and absentee has been happening for years. As you noted, not just the president , his family, but his staff. Democrats and republicans agreed its safe for years and several states like colorado, utah, and oregon have all been voting by mail for decades, safely, securely, with infinitesimal levels of fraud. This is a system that works and this is a moment when citizens across both aisles are demanding their right to vote by mail in the midst of this pandemic, so we truly should be doing all we can to make that happen for our voters. And if the powers that be, if those in our congress, if those in the white house are not stepping up to make the changes and protections we need, we need voters to be more informed than ever before on how to request, return, and track their ballots so they can make sure every vote, including theirs, is counted. Michigan secretary of state jocelyn ben zonk thank you so much for joining us this evening. For more on what can be done about the president s attack on the election im joined by congressman jamie raskin. Hes a democrat from maryland. Hes also a member of the House Oversight committee which oversees the Postal Service. Im so glad to chat with you today, congressman about this important issue as we head into the election. What can be done from the part of congress to ensure that these attacks on the Postal Service dont interfere in the election process . Well, delighted to be with you. 91 days ago, the house of the representatives passed the heroes act, which includes 25 billion in funding for the Postal Service, and this was something that was very clear many months ago that the Postal Service needed in order to conduct its operations, and just a couple of days ago, the general counsel, Thomas Marshall sent a letter to congress saying essentially it does not have to funds needed in order to conduct its usual operations. So the one very easy thing that could happen is that the senate of the United States could pass the heroes act. Now, alas, President Trump seems to have made it perfectly clear in his inimitable way of disclosing exactly whats going on that the whole reason for not coming to terms with the house of representatives for not passing the heroes act, which is so desperately needed by our first responders, by unemployed people, by the states and counties, is that they want to prevent the Postal Service from getting that 25 billion. Thats what donald trump seemed to make perfectly clear yesterday. Is so the gop apparently has a strategy of sabotaging the post office, there by creating all kinds of Collateral Damage for other people. I spoke to one of my constituents today who is a 30year naval captain veteran who is not getting her hyper tension medication, its ten days late already because theyre disrupting the males to create confusion before the election. Were demanding the senate act. Speaker pelosi and senator schumer sent a letter today to mr. Dejoy demanding answers, essentially to ten pages of questions about whats going on with the demobilization of postal machinery, the destruction of overtime, which is all an attempt to squeeze the post office and to make it inoperative and inoperable. We only have two to three weeks to turn that around, and then we have to make other plans for the election. Its not too late, but we need a full mobilization of the legislative machinery to bear down on oversight and get everybody that we can, obviously every mayor and governor in the country, democrat, republican, independent, to say that an attack on the post office is essentially a declaration of war against the United States of america, against our democracy, and we wont tolerate it. Its unacceptable. When you say its an attack on the United States of america, previously President Trump was impeached for trying to manipulate the election in 2020 it seems like this is the same set of circumstances hes trying to manipulate the upcoming election. Is that an Impeachable Offense what hes doing at the post office . Well, its obviously an Impeachable Offense. That doesnt necessarily mean that any minds have been changed in Mitch Mcconnells senate sophomore f. So for us its always a balancing act to go down that road. You know as well as i do how much donald trump loves the circus atmosphere in distracting folks from whats going on. We have an election thats less than 90 days away, and weve got make sure we skoo you are the american election. We were able to conduct elections with accuracy, integrity through world war i, world war ii, weve got to be able to do now. But that means the democracy is on the ballot. In 2020. I said before, all of the nonsense with the post office started, and basically youve got d on the ballot for democracy and r for russia and putins puppet in the white house. This is the choice for us. We can go down the road of the authoritarianism and chaos. President advanced no plans and no discussion of what he wants to do in his new term. All he wants to do is hang on to power, or we can reveal everything thats been so ravaged by the terrible policies of this president. Congressman jamie raskin of maryland, i want to thank you for joining me this evening. This is such an important conversation that we should continue having because the election interference or the attempted election interference seem to be having right in front of our faces. Well have you back to talk about this topic and if youre planning to vote by mail and your ballot, were going to walk you through exactly what you need to do to make sure your vote is counted this november. You dont want to miss it. 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