A new corporate filing Monday has revealed that the chairman of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors is also listed as a director of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s $130 million super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund.
The revelation about Chairman Robert “Mike” Duncan comes as Democrats are accusing President Donald Trump, the postmaster general and Republicans of sabotaging the Postal Service in an attempt to suppress mail-in voting, supposedly to tip the election in Trump’s favor. If that doesn’t work, critics say, Trump will point to any ballot delivery problems to challenge election result in the event of his loss.
Duncan previously served as general counsel and then chair of the Republican National Committee from 2002 to 2009, when the committee and its state counterparts supervised an unprecedented escalation of voter disenfranchisement efforts in swing states. One of the tactics was manipulating mail-in votes.
Duncan was also listed earlier this year as a director of American Crossroads, a super PAC that’s backing Trump in the 2020 election, according to CNBC.
Duncan, from Republican McConnell’s home state of Kentucky, was handpicked for his role by Trump. His board of governors in turn named Louis DeJoy, a prominent contributor to the Trump campaign, as postmaster general in June.
Most members of the Postal Service’s board of governors have numerous ties to the Republican Party as well as to Trump’s associates and administration, CNBC has reported.
Since he was named postmaster general, DeJoy has been dismantling Postal Service processes, causing major delivery delays. Hundreds of mail-sorting machines and letter collection boxes in several states have been disabled or taken out. DeJoy also announced a halt to overtime pay for letter carriers and a new limit on hours when mail can be delivered.
Amid the cutbacks, the USPS sent a letter to 46 states warning that voters could be disenfranchised because their mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to meet deadlines.
Trump has all but admitted he is blocking a desperately needed infusion of funds to the cash-strapped Postal Service, knowing it will hamstring voting by mail.
The president has already declared, without any evidence, that the Nov. 3 election will be the “most corrupt” in U.S. history because of the anticipated wide use of mail-in ballots as voters try to avoid the risk of contracting COVID-19. Trump and first lady Melania Trump, however, voted by mail this month in the Florida primary.