Election and Voting News

Even in a bitterly partisan U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats have found something to agree on. Lawmakers unanimously approved a bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

If the bill is also passed by the House and signed by President Biden, Americans would no longer have to set their clocks forward in the spring and set them back in the fall.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a sponsor of the bill, noted the bipartisan nature of the support for the measure to make America’s time consistent.

“Just this past weekend, we all went through that biannual ritual of changing the clock back and forth, and the disruption that comes with it,” Rubio said. “And one has to ask themselves after a while, ‘Why do we keep doing it? Why are we doing this?’”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), was the lead Democratic sponsor of the legislation. He said the measure is highly popular in his state.

“Pretty much everybody in Rhode Island experiences the same thing on that unhappy day in early November  … when suddenly an hour of your day, an hour of your daylight disappears and dusk comes an hour earlier,” he said.

First promoted to save candles

According to some accounts, the first proposal for Daylight Saving Time goes all the way back to 1784 when it was argued that aligning Americans’ awake hours to daylight would save on candle usage. In the 20th century, the argument was updated to advocate the conservation of electricity. Daylight Saving Time began in the U.S. in 1918.

While many nations other than the U.S. observe Daylight Saving Time, others do not. Those that do sometimes have different start dates than other nations.

Adding to the confusion, some states and territories do not observe Daylight Saving Time, remaining on Standard Time. The areas of the U.S. that do not go on Daylight Saving Time are Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.

Disruptive

In a global economy, lawmakers argue that Daylight Saving Time can lead to confusion and disrupt timekeeping, travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, and sleep patterns. Rubio says he believes most Americans are ready for some consistency.

“So we're doing this back-and-forth clock changing for about 16 weeks of Standard Time a year,” Rubio said. “I think the majority of the American people's preference is just to stop the back and forth changing. But beyond that, I think their preference is — certainly at least based on today's vote, and what we've heard — is to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.”

The measure now heads to the House of Representatives. Once House Speaker Nancy Pelosi schedules a vote, the unanimous vote in the Senate suggests easy passage.

Americans who count on Social Security and SSI checks, U.S. Postal Service deliveries, or VA medical facilities and clinics can feel safe going into the weekend. Late Thursday, both the House and Senate voted to fund the government until February, avoiding the threat of a shutdown that would bring those services to a standstill.

The bill was in danger up until the last minute, as a group of Republican senators threatened to stall its passage unless language was added in that blocked the use of federal money to carry out President Biden’s mandate on workplace vaccinations. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said that one consequence of the president's order could be a loss of jobs. However, that amendment failed to pass.

"This is about jobs in Kansas. It's about jobs in Texas, in Utah, across the nation. An unconstitutional federal vaccine mandate's going to lead to an economic shutdown, jobs lost back home,” Marshall told reporters prior to the vote being taken.

Going into Thursday’s eleventh-hour dare, President Biden was confident that everything would stay as it was. 

“I spoke with Mitch McConnell. I spoke with Schumer. There is a plan in place, unless somebody decides to be totally erratic. And I don’t think that will happen, so I don’t think there will be a shutdown,” Biden said during a press conference addressing the Omicron COVID-19 variant.

If a government shutdown occurs, who’ll be impacted?

If the federal government ever finds itself in a shutdown, as it did for 35 days in 2018 when Donald Trump was president, the effect would be significant and wide-ranging. At risk would be:

• Hundreds of thousands of federal employees and government contractors who wouldn’t get a paycheck until Congress reaches an agreement on funding;  

• Government facilities such as consulates in foreign countries, national parks and museums, and IRS offices that would be closed; and

• Consumers who want a government permit. For example, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be closed during a shutdown, so consumers who want to get a gun permit would have to wait until the shutdown is over.

Fortunately, Medicare and Social Security benefits, as well as employment benefits from individual states, should continue uninterrupted.

Last week, all eyes were on the U.S. Senate as Capitol Hill struggled with chaos over raising the debt ceiling. This week, it’s the U.S. House of Representatives. 

On Tuesday, the House voted to raise the debt ceiling by $480 billion and sent the bill to President Biden for his sign-off. With that, House officials also set themselves up for another tug of war over how much the nation can borrow to keep the proverbial lights on, people employed, and mortgage rates reasonable. 

Biden had already warned Congress that there would be dire consequences if it didn’t raise the debt ceiling, saying the U.S. would face "a self-inflicted wound that takes our economy over a cliff.”

The legislation the House passed gives the government some breathing space, but not much. The new bill allows the U.S. to pay its bills through early December. At that juncture, we can expect another -- and far more critical -- round in this match. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has already said Republicans will not sign off on future legislation to avoid a government default.

Think of the debt ceiling like it's a limit on a credit card

Not only does the possibility of an economic default raise potential issues for the country as a whole, but it also hits Americans where it can hurt the most -- in the pocketbook. 

If a default triggers a global recession, as Treasury Department officials think it might, things like 401(k)s and other investments would likely take a tumble. So could Social Security, Medicare, military salaries, and tax refunds -- essentially any form of income that comes from the federal government. 

Sarah Foster of Bankrate says consumers can wrap their heads more easily around this situation if they think of the debt ceiling as if it were the credit limit on a credit card. However, unlike what happens when you use up your credit card’s “debt ceiling,” Congress isn’t cut off from spending once it reaches that limit. “Lawmakers can keep committing to new spending, after which the debt ceiling isn’t automatically raised,” Foster said.

“It has failed miserably,” says Mark Hamrick, Bankrate senior economic analyst and Washington bureau chief, referring to the debt ceiling. “It is akin to having me promise to pay you dollars, and then raise the threat of failing — or fail — to make good on that without funds.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has voted 7-2 to uphold the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare). The ruling came mid-morning on Thursday following a challenge from 18 Republican-held states, and it allows the landmark law to continue protecting millions of Americans with preexisting health conditions.

Republicans had pinned their argument against ObamaCare on the legislation’s tax penalty, which was created to prompt Americans to purchase health insurance. The GOP contingent maintained that the minimum essential coverage requirement was not severable from the rest of the Act. 

Before Joe Biden took over the White House, the Trump-led Justice Department had also urged the Supreme Court to strike down the law. 

The challengers tried playing two angles regarding the tax penalty: first, they claimed that Obamacare had no constitutional footing without the tax penalty, and should therefore be invalidated; secondly, they said President Trump’s tax cut in 2017, which zeroed out the penalty, made the provision unconstitutional in the first place.

“Hence, they believe the Act as a whole is invalid,” wrote Justice Stephen Breyer in delivering the opinion of the Court. “We do not reach these questions of the Act’s validity, however, for Texas and the other plaintiffs in this suit lack the standing necessary to raise them.”

Conservative justices side with liberal justices

The 7-2 decision turned out to be an interesting mix given the Court’s make-up. Fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with Breyer, as did four of the court’s conservative-leaning justices -- Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas.

For one of the two dissenting Justices -- Samuel Alito -- there were some sour grapes. 

“No one can fail to be impressed by the lengths to which this Court has been willing to go to defend the ACA against all threats. A penalty is a tax. The United States is a State. And 18 States who bear costly burdens under the ACA cannot even get a foot in the door to raise a constitutional challenge,” he wrote in his remarks.

“So a tax that does not tax is allowed to stand and support one of the biggest Government programs in our Nation’s history. Fans of judicial inventiveness will applaud once again. But I must respectfully dissent.”

The presidential and congressional races might have gotten all the national attention, but voters in several states also pulled the lever for popular ballot initiatives.

In California, voters overwhelmingly backed Proposition 22, which overturned a state law requiring drivers for ride-sharing companies to be employees rather than independent contractors. Uber and Lyft had campaigned heavily in favor of Prop 22, saying California’s gig economy law would radically change their business models and significantly raise costs for riders. 

The race wasn’t even close; the Associated Press called it before 11 p.m. local time, with 58 percent of California voters supporting it. The Los Angeles Times reports that it was a major setback for California’s labor unions, which had lobbied the legislature for passage of the gig economy law.

Unions had better luck on election day in Florida. Voters approved a referendum to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. It’s the eighth state to take that action. The current minimum wage in Florida is $8.56 an hour. The ballot initiative approved by voters raises it to $10 next year, then increases it by $1 an hour every year until 2026.

The measure had strong labor support and was also supported by Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. It easily passed, despite the fact that President Trump carried the state.

Drug legalization

Voters in New Jersey approved a constitutional amendment that legalizes the recreational use of marijuana, joining a growing number of states that have legalized the use of the drug. Voters overwhelmingly approved the amendment, with 66 percent voting in favor.

Gov. Phil Murphy was in favor of the amendment, having campaigned on legal marijuana three years ago. 

Voters in Oregon went a step farther, voting to decriminalize small amounts of several drugs. The ballot measure legalizes the use of psilocybin — the psychedelic compound in mushrooms — as a treatment for mental health patients. 

The state also decriminalized the possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, Oxycodone, and methamphetamine. Possession of these substances will now be treated as a civil violation that carries a fine, with the money going towards addiction treatment and other drug rehabilitation measures. 

As expected, there was no clear winner of the presidential race on election night. Because so many early ballots were cast, it will take some time to count them all.

But how long do we have to wait? Is there a time limit?

That is largely up to the individual states, but if you can remember back to the 2000 election, when it was so close in Florida that it took two recounts to finally pick a winner, the process can extend into early December. 

In the 2020 election, there were a record number of early ballots cast, and in Pennsylvania -- a key battleground state -- they don’t start counting the early votes until the polls have closed on election day.

It’s possible that a presidential winner will be declared by the time you read this. Then again, that process could take two or three days, with Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania once again playing major roles in picking a winner.

Different states have different rules

One provision slowing the counting of mailed ballots is the deadline for submitting them. The provision says only that a ballot must be postmarked by Nov. 3. Ballots mailed on that day could take a couple of days to be delivered, even though the courts have ordered the Postal Service to expedite mailed ballots.

In Washington state, where it’s not particularly close, ballots received by Nov. 23 will be counted. In North Carolina and Pennsylvania, two states where it is close, ballots received by Nov. 6 will be counted.

Minnesota and Nevada, two other competitive states, will wait a few days longer -- until Nov. 10. In Ohio, ballots received by Nov. 13 with a Nov. 3 postmark will be counted.

A state’s electoral votes are based on its population, and a winning presidential candidate must win at least 270 electoral votes overall. 

In many past elections, a candidate would declare victory based on news media projections about who won particular states, even though all the votes had not been counted. The projections were based on exit polls conducted at key precincts in key states, and they have been reliable.

They couldn’t do that this year because of the huge number of early ballots that were cast. Those voters couldn’t be questioned after casting their ballot -- and because there are so many of them, these ballots hold the potential to swing a close state from one candidate to the other.

It’s got to be over by Dec. 8

This year, Dec. 8 is the absolute cutoff for states to certify a winner. A federal law, the Electoral Count Act, posts a deadline for states to settle disputes, conduct any needed recounts, certify a winner, and send the candidate’s electors to the Electoral College six days later.

Oh yes, the Electoral College. These handpicked electors backing each state’s winning candidate meet in Washington to “elect” the president and vice president. Legally, however, they can vote for anyone.

Since the last election, several states have passed laws requiring electors from their states to vote for the candidate who nationally received the most popular vote, thereby setting the stage for a winning candidate’s electors possibly voting for the other candidate.

There’s a dose of good news/bad news being reported on Election Day 2020. The good news is that so far -- by noon, Tuesday -- there are no reports of suspected digital meddling. The bad news is that voters across the U.S. have reported receiving peculiar robocalls trying to prod them into staying home on Election Day, according to state and party officials.

The acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, said Tuesday that “we have no indications that a foreign actor has succeeded in compromising or manipulating any votes in this election.”

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Christopher Krebs, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told a press conference early Tuesday, saying that the day isn’t over yet and that there “may be other events or activities or efforts to interfere or undermine confidence in the election.”

Misleading robocalls attempt to suppress voting

Election and party officials in Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Michigan reported a jump in the number of automated phone calls going out to voters trying to keep them away from the polls for a variety of phony reasons.

“Getting reports of multiple robocalls going to Flint residents that, due to long lines, they should vote tomorrow,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Twitter. “Obviously this is FALSE and an effort to suppress the vote.”

Nessel has had her hands full lately. In October, two notorious right-wing operatives were charged with felonies in Michigan for apparently orchestrating thousands of robocalls "aimed at suppressing the vote" in the upcoming election.

Other Election Day issues

In NBC News’ Election Day sleuthing of all that could go wrong, it reported that conservative media influencers and Republican political operatives in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania have been tweeting misleading videos and photos from polling locations and making ambiguous claims of election rigging. Several of those tweets have been shared tens of thousands of times. 

In one instance, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office debunked a tweet from President Trump’s director of election day operations, Mike Roman, which contained photos from separate polling places and the contention that “Bad things are happening in Philly.” The District Attorney’s office cut to the quick on the tweet, calling it “deliberately deceptive.” 

Reuters reported that the voting systems in Spalding County, Georgia, had also gone on the fritz. Local media reports said provisional ballots had been expedited to polling stations so people could still vote. “Remember, sometimes technology fails and breaks,” Krebs said. “It is important to recognize this process may require time,” Wolf added.

The presidential election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden has led to high numbers of early voting across the country, due to both COVID-19 concerns and passion on both sides. 

But officials still expect plenty of voters to cast their ballot on election day, Tuesday, November 3. Consumers who plan to visit a polling place can expect things to look a little different this Election Day because of the pandemic. 

From setting up plexiglass partitions to asking voters to practice six-foot social distancing, polling places have gone to great lengths to prevent the spread of the virus. Federal health officials have advised poll workers to minimize contact with voters and follow COVID-19 procedures, including wearing a mask and gloves. 

For voters, the CDC recommends washing hands before entering and after leaving their polling location, wearing a mask, and maintaining at least 6 feet of distance from others. The agency also recommends voting at off-peak times, such as mid-morning, in order to avoid crowds. 

What to bring 

To make sure you stay safe and have your vote counted, be sure to bring the following to your polling place. 

• Personal identification. Two-thirds of states expect voters to provide identification in order to vote. A list of acceptable forms of ID can be found here. 

• Your own pen. Bring your own black or blue ink pen in case you need to sign something. One may be provided for you, but this will help eliminate any extra risk of contamination.

• Face mask. Health officials highly recommend wearing a mask. Some county guidance states that polling places cannot turn people away for not wearing a mask. However, maskless individuals will often be asked to wait to vote until it’s less crowded or asked to vote away from others.

• Hand sanitizer. The CDC recommends bringing hand sanitizer with greater than 60 percent ethanol or 70 percent isopropyl alcohol, which is the level needed to kill most coronaviruses. 

• Glove or cotton swab. If your voting station has touch-screen voting, consider bringing a glove, cotton swab, or finger cover to reduce contact with surfaces. 

For help locating your polling place, visit this website. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You have the right to vote as long as you are in line by 8 p.m. 

On the eve of the 2020 election, a federal judge has instructed the United States Postal Service (USPS) to require some "extraordinary measures" to address the slowdown of election ballot processing in key states. 

This is not the first time a federal judge has ordered the USPS to get its election ballot act together. In September, a federal judge in New York ruled that the USPS must make changes to expedite the delivery of election mail and bolster Americans’ confidence in the mail-in voting system.

But this is not a “typical” election because of the COVID-19 pandemic’s expected effect on voter turn-out at their usual polling precincts. In the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, an estimated 33 million ballots were cast via mail. 

So far in the run-up to this year’s election, the Postal Service said it had delivered a record 122 million blank and completed ballots -- four times what was processed in 2016 and within spitting distance of the total 140 million citizens who voted in the 2016 General Election.

The USPS’ marching orders

The USPS claims that First-Class Mail service performance was at 80.85 percent for the week of October 17 through October 23, but Judge Emmet Sullivan thinks the agency can still do better. The marching orders he gave the USPS are designed to take any uncertainty out of processing mail-in ballots relating to Tuesday’s election. 

In his order, Sullivan mandates that the USPS utilize “special procedures” -- like its Express Mail network -- to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.” Sullivan’s order forced USPS to put the “extraordinary measures” policy into action by 9 p.m. EST on Sunday, November 1.

The USPS has also instructed managers that “all ballots with a local destination must be cleared and processed on the same day or no later than the next morning for delivery to local offices, from now through at least November 7.”

On top of the USPS' daily scans for election mail, it’s requiring that its processing plant managers certify three other key turning points:

1. All local ballots have been forwarded to the local election centers or post office by 10 a.m., local time, on Monday and Tuesday; 

2. The Express Mail network is being used for ballots -- “unless there is a faster surface option;” and

3. Postal workers are quickly delivering local ballots.

Importance of delivering ballots

Lowering the boom push to get as many ballots as possible delivered by Election Day evening has taken on new importance. President Donald Trump has raised suspicion, without evidence, that mail-in voting would lead to pervasive fraud and that the vote will be rigged against him.

As late as Sunday, Trump reiterated his stance that the results should be known by Tuesday night, despite the likelihood that counting and authenticating absentee ballots will take longer than that.

“If people wanted to get their ballots in, they should have gotten their ballots in long before that,” Trump told reporters.

We’re only weeks away from a fierce U.S. Presidential election, and various reports are circulating that a group of tech firms have taken down a significant hacking tool being used by Russian attackers. 

Experts say the tool was intended to sway voter opinions or infect computer systems used to maintain voter rolls. Given a chance to run wild, the tool may have been able to report on election-night results or seize computer systems at a scheduled time to sow havoc and doubt.

Leading the charge of the hacker prevention warriors is Microsoft, which announced Monday that it had taken prohibitive actions against Trickbot. Trickbot -- already a longtime Microsoft nuisance -- is a notorious Russian botnet that's infected more than a million computers and has been a leading source behind an endless number of ransomware attacks. 

“We disrupted Trickbot through a court order we obtained as well as technical action we executed in partnership with telecommunications providers around the world,” wrote Tom Burt, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust. “We have now cut off key infrastructure so those operating Trickbot will no longer be able to initiate new infections or activate ransomware already dropped into computer systems.” 

The court granted Microsoft the permission to disable any IP address or server used by Trickbot, as well as block Trickbot’s owners from buying more servers. 

Trickbot does more than than just mess with elections

On top of Trickbot’s election threat, it’s regarded as a major thorn in the side of financial institutions. Security researchers say the malware has previously been able to reach online banking websites and steal funds from people, banks, payment processors, and credit unions without a consumer ever knowing what happened.

“People are unaware of Trickbot’s activity as the operators have designed it to hide itself,” Burt said. “After Trickbot captures login credentials and personal information, operators use that information to access people’s bank accounts. People experience a normal login process and are typically unaware of the underlying surveillance and theft.”

Election cybersecurity is nothing new, but the idea of this kind of attack brings little comfort now that we’re only weeks away from election day. You might remember when Facebook data collected by Cambridge Analytica was used to promote pro-Trump messaging back in 2016.

Ransomware attacks have been on an upswing over the four years since Trickbot appeared on the scene, targeting everyone from city governments to health care companies like United Health Services and its 400 health care facilities in the U.S. and U.K. 

Another federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Postal Service must prioritize election mail in order to ensure that it is delivered in time to be tallied on November 3.

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York's Southern District ruled on Monday that the USPS must make changes to expedite the delivery of election mail and bolster Americans’ confidence in the mail-in voting system.

"The right to vote is too vital a value in our democracy to be left in a state of suspense in the minds of voters weeks before a presidential election, raising doubts as to whether their votes will ultimately be counted," Marrero wrote. 

Processing election mail in a timely manner

Marrero said Monday that USPS workers must treat all election mail as first-class mail or priority mail express starting September 25. In addition, the USPS must pre-approve all overtime pay for post office workers between October 26 and November 6 and file weekly reports informing the public of its progress in pushing election mail through in time for votes to be counted.

He added that President Trump, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and the Postal Service "have not provided trusted assurance and comfort that citizens will be able to cast ballots with full confidence that their votes would be timely collected and counted."

Less than a week ago, a judge in Washington state also ruled against the USPS, saying changes are necessary to make sure all election mail is prioritized.  

"While the court has no doubts that the Postal Service's workforce comprises hardworking and dedicated public servants, multiple managerial failures have undermined the postal employees' ability to fulfill their vital mission," Marrero said in his 87-page ruling.

The Postal Service said it’s “reviewing the court's decision,” but the agency said the public shouldn’t doubt that the USPS is “ready and fully committed to handling expected increased volumes of Election Mail between now and the conclusion of the November 3rd election.” 

"Our number one priority is to deliver the nation's Election Mail securely and in a timely fashion,” a USPS spokesperson said. 

The 2020 U.S. presidential election is inching ever closer, and Twitter is trying to do its part to ensure a fair process. The platform announced late last year that it was banning political advertisements, with officials saying that political message reach “should be earned, not bought.” 

This year, the company is taking another step by launching its own U.S. election hub. In a blog post, Twitter Public Policy Director Bridget Coyne said that launching the hub will help the company concentrate its efforts on informing consumers about election information they need to know. 

“With just under 50 days to go until election day and when many Americans are already facing registration deadlines and preparing for early voting, we’re launching our 2020 U.S. election hub to make it simpler for people to find accurate information and resources on Twitter,” she said. 

Providing election information

Users can check out the new election hub by looking at the top of their Explore tab on the platform. Within the hub, users will be able to read election-related news in both English and Spanish that is produced by “reputable news outlets” or by a team of curators within Twitter.

Additionally, the hub will feature region-specific election information so that users can learn about their own local and state elections -- including races for the House of Representatives, Senate, and governorship. Twitter will also host live streams of major election events like debates.

Finally, users will find public service announcements about voter education from nonpartisan government groups and voting advocacy organizations.

“Twitter wants to empower every eligible person to vote in the 2020 U.S. election, and we’re focused on helping people register, better understand the voting process during COVID-19 including early voting options, and feel informed about the choices on their ballot,” Coyne said.

The House of Representatives are set to vote this Saturday on legislation related to the U.S. postal service and its ability to manage mail-in ballots in November. 

House Democratic leaders are interested in providing the USPS with an initial $25 billion in new funding since the postal service will be facing an influx of mail-in votes on Election Day as voters try to minimize their contact with people amid the coronavirus pandemic. 

The bill up for vote on Saturday would also stop “any changes to the operations or level of service" that were implemented on January 1 until the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats say changes introduced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump appointee, threaten to impact the handling of mail-in ballots. 

Over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would call the chamber back into session from its August recess to consider the bill. The House was previously slated to return for votes in mid-September.

“In a time of a pandemic, the Postal Service is Election Central,” Pelosi wrote Sunday in a letter to colleagues.

Postal service crisis

Pelosi said the bill seeks to offset “the devastating effects of the President’s campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters.”

"The Postal Service is a pillar of our democracy, enshrined in the Constitution and essential for providing critical services: delivering prescriptions, Social Security benefits, paychecks, tax returns and absentee ballots to millions of Americans, including in our most remote communities," Pelosi wrote. "Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President's campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters."

The President has continued to claim that mail-in voting leads to an increase in voter fraud, which is one of the reasons he's opposed to providing additional funding to the agency. However, on Monday, Trump refuted the claim that he’s trying to suppress voting by criticizing the Postal Service. 

"I want to make the post office great again," Trump said Monday on "Fox and Friends." "This isn't a Trump thing. This has been one of the disasters of the world the way it's been run. Now what am I supposed to do – let it continue to run badly? So if you fix it, they say, 'Oh, he's tampering with the election.' No, we're not tampering.”