Source Of Postal Slowdown Linked To Higher-Ups, Records Show

The Washington Post: Internal USPS Documents Link Changes Behind Mail Slowdowns To Top Executives 
A senior executive at the U.S. Postal Service delivered a PowerPoint presentation in July that pressed officials across the organization to make the operational changes that led to mail backups across the country, seemingly counter to months of official statements about the origin of the plans, according to internal documents obtained by The Washington Post. David E. Williams, the agency’s chief of logistics and processing operations, listed the elimination of late and extra mail trips by postal workers as a primary agency goal during the July 10 teleconference. He also told the group that he wanted daily counts on such trips, which had become common practice to ensure the timely delivery of mail. Several top-tier executives — including Robert Cintron, vice president of logistics; Angela Curtis, vice president of retail and post office operations; and vice presidents from the agency’s seven geographic areas — sat in. (Bogage, 9/24)

In related news about voting during the pandemic —

The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Statement On Mail-In Ballot Investigation Appalls Election Law Experts 
The Justice Department alarmed voting-law experts Thursday by announcing an investigation into nine discarded ballots found in northeastern Pennsylvania, a case immediately seized upon by the Trump campaign as evidence of a dark Democratic conspiracy to tamper with the presidential election. President Trump also appeared to cite the case, telling reporters at the White House that ballots had been found “in a wastepaper basket in some location. . . . We want to make sure that the election is honest, and I’m not sure that it can be.” (Barrett, 9/24)

The Washington Post: FBI Director Christopher Wray: Widespread Mail Ballot Interference Would Be A 'Major Challenge' For Foreign Agents 
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told senators Thursday that the United States has not experienced large-scale voter fraud by mail or other means, and said it would be a “major challenge” for a foreign country to attempt such a thing, despite repeated claims made by President Trump in the run-up to November’s election. “Americans must have confidence in our voting system and our election infrastructure,” Wray told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. “We are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections.” (Barrett, 9/24)

ProPublica: Foreign Hackers Cripple Texas County’s Email System, Raising Election Security Concerns 
Last week, voters and election administrators who emailed Leanne Jackson, the clerk of rural Hamilton County in central Texas, received bureaucratic-looking replies. “Re: official precinct results,” one subject line read. The text supplied passwords for an attached file. But Jackson didn’t send the messages. Instead, they came from Sri Lankan and Congolese email addresses, and they cleverly hid malicious software inside a Microsoft Word attachment. By the time Jackson learned about the forgery, it was too late. Hackers continued to fire off look-alike replies. Jackson’s three-person office, already grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, ground to a near standstill. (Gillum, Huseman, Kao and Willis, 9/24)

Stateline: First Came The Floods. Then Came The Polling Place Changes.
That has new relevance this year amid flooding, wildfires and a pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color, while also forcing voters to contend with vast changes to the ways and places they vote. Just as Baton Rouge voters struggled to stay informed of polling place changes during the 2016 election, many now worry about their access to the ballot during the COVID-19 pandemic because of concern over the safety of in-person voting and the threat of slowed mail for absentee voting. (Vasilogambros, Levine and Rebala, 9/24)

AP: Colorado Secretary Of State Defends Mail-In Voting
Colorado’s Secretary of State Jena Griswold criticized President Donald Trump for misleading voters about one of the safest voting systems in the United States on Thursday. “There is a lot of misinformation about this election. Unfortunately a lot of it comes form the President of United States,” Griswold said at a a virtual town hall Thursday, held to combat the malicious spread of false information and discuss the state’s mail-in voting and ballot tracking system. (Nieberg, 9/24)

The New York Times: Battles Over Voting Rules Fuel Concern About Postelection Fights 
With less than six weeks until Election Day, laws governing how Americans vote remain in flux in many battleground states, with the two parties locked in an intensive fight over the rules as President Trump continues to suggest he will challenge any outcome unfavorable to him. The combination of the pandemic, doubts about the capacity of the Postal Service to handle a flood of mail ballots and an aggressive push by Democrats to expand access to voting rights and counter Republican efforts to limit them has fueled litigation and legislative battles across the country that have not been resolved even as early voting has gotten underway. (Corasaniti and Vogel, 9/24)

Also —

Medical News Today: How To Stay Safe While Voting During A Pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have drawn up an extensive guide informing polling stations and voters how to adhere to the best health and safety practices during this year’s presidential elections. While many of the prevention strategies — such as frequently cleaning polling station surfaces — are in the hands of election officials and poll workers, there is a lot that voters themselves can do to stay safe. (Cohut, 9/24)