Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is once again calling on the United States Postal Service to improve delivery times after a reorganization of mail processing in the region led to significant delays that continue today.
On Thursday, Ossoff spoke about the mailing issues outside of a recent USPS Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto. Delays began shortly after the center went into operation in February.
“I inspected this facility. I sat down with local USPS leaders to gain additional information about the causes of abysmal performance in Metro Atlanta and North Georgia,” he said.
“And what became even clearer is that this transition for our region was not well thought through, not well planned and not competently executed.”
Ossoff continued to point the finger of responsibility at Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and says he wants to aim “maximum pressure” at DeJoy.
“This is not on postal workers. Postal workers have tough jobs. This is a question of management, competent management.”
The senator noted the Postmaster General cannot be fired by the President or Congress, but by the USPS Board of Governors.
According to the latest data from mid-May, first class mail in Georgia is being delivered on-time 58% of the time, averaging 4 days to deliver compared to a year ago, where it was 88% on-time and averaging 2 1/2 days to deliver.
Ossoff says the delivery issues have delayed the mailing of prescription drugs and absentee ballots.
State and local election officials suggest voters request an absentee ballot early or plan to early vote in-person or on election day for the upcoming June 18 primary runoffs.
Important races on the ballot include the Republican primary for Georgia’s Congressional, along with Democratic primaries for DeKalb CEO and Clayton County Sheriff.
Local and regional postal staff tell Ossoff that they believe they can restore normal service by mid-June, much to the senator’s doubts.
A bipartisan group of Georgia’s Congressional delegation have also been critical of postal delays, including Republican Congressman Mike Collins and Barry Loudermilk.
Ossoff also says he has exchanged “correspondence” with DeJoy, but not had a conversation since an April congressional hearing, where Ossoff directly questioned the reasons for a then 36% decline in on-time delivery of first-class mail.
