ATLANTA — Today the U.S. Postmaster General pulled back on cost-cutting measures that critics said would impact absentee and mail-in voting in the November election.
Some of that criticism echoed through Georgia Tuesday before the announcement. It included folks demonstrating against the cuts in front of the Buckhead office of US senator David Perdue.
President Trump and other Republicans had been calling for the postal service to cut its costs and streamline its operations – a call which coincided with the run-up to the November election.
In Georgia, absentee ballots can be delivered by hand to drop boxes in some counties – but the vast majority get delivered by mail. And the majority of votes cast in Georgia’s June primary were absentee.
GOP US Rep. Doug Collins (R-Georgia), a Trump supporter, said Tuesday, after the announcement by the postmaster general, that the postal service cuts were worthwhile.
"He was trying to make it more efficient and make sure the ballots got there. I think it got caught up in the election year politics more than anything else," said Collins, who will be on a special election ballot in November for a US Senate seat.
One of Collins' opponents in that race, GOP US Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia) said "the post office has well sufficient liquidity to get us through the election. We have a postmaster general that’s looking at creating more efficiencies."
She spoke shortly before the USPS pulled back on the reforms.
Tuesday, Democrats attacked the postal service's planned cutbacks.
"It’s an attack on our very democracy," said US Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia), who appeared in front of a post office Tuesday morning to denounce the cuts – saying the postal service was "ground zero" for this November’s election.