Are they going to do it without money? Trump blocks funding for mail-in votes

Accepting the fact that Postal Service requires money for mail-in voting, US President Donald Trump said that he will reject the legislation that contains the provision for emergency funding for the agency. The President had been criticising the mail-in voting for months stating that it would lead to “one of the greatest frauds in history.”

During his daily news briefing, Trump said he would block the $25 billion in emergency funding for the Postal Service or $3.6 billion in supplemental funding for election resources. He cited high costs as a reason for the ban.

“They don’t have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So, therefore, they can’t do it, I guess. Are they going to do it even if they don’t have the money?” Trump asked.

Trump also said that the demands of Democrats to fund mail-in voting and the US Postal Service in ongoing coronavirus stimulus negotiations were a non-starter. He had earlier said, “Mail-In Voting is already proving to be a catastrophic disaster.”

Mail-in voting is a common process in the US where millions of Americans – including much of the military – have used the post office to cast absentee ballots for years. No case of ‘fraud’ as Trump claims it has been reported yet.

The remarks come at a time when Democratic senators have asked to repeal the operational changes brought in by the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor and Trump ally. House Democrats also demanded to give the agency $25 billion in one-time funding and $3.6 billion in funds for mail-in voting in the next stimulus package