Submitted by Joe Angland, Chairman, Greenwich Democratic Town Committee
“It’s a disgrace.” That’s how the Director of the Connecticut State Postal Workers characterized recent decisions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that imperil the ability of Connecticut citizens to cast their votes in the upcoming general election.
We haven’t heard a word from the Greenwich Republican candidates about these nefarious actions leading up to Election Day. This callous interference with the right to vote demonstrates DeJoy’s fealty to his boss rather than to United States citizens.
DeJoy has implemented President Trump’s plan to disrupt voting-by-mail despite the President’s regular submission by mail of absentee ballots. At a time when both government officials and private citizens are expressing concern about the ability of the postal system to timely process the enormous number of applications for absentee ballot and ballots themselves, the Postmaster General has sabotaged the ability of the system to do so by requiring that Connecticut sorting machines that could handle millions of pieces of mail be kept on the sidelines.
Specifically, two machines in Wallingford that could process 35,000 pieces of mail an hour were taken out of service, supposedly because the volume of mail did not require them. But while the original position was that the machines would be stored somewhere until an increase in the volume of mail required their use, the machines were disassembled. Four machines in Hartford met a similar fate, with their parts now stored in a parking lot. And despite the Postmaster General’s public statement that no cutbacks that might interfere with processing ballots would occur, his subsequent email said that those machines would remain disassembled.
This is unconscionable! Few acts are as offensive as denying a citizen the right to vote. But to date, this naked subversion of the right to vote has drawn no response from Greenwich’s Republican candidates: Ryan Fazio, Harry Arora, Kim Fiorello, and Joe Kelly.
Voters deserve to know whether those candidates condemn this conduct. Any candidate who supports this infringement of the right to vote, or who by his or her silence condones it, does not deserve our votes.
Joe Angland
Chairman, Greenwich Democratic Town Committee