Pelosi: Don’t mail your ballots

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned voters to return ballots in-person and not by mail, adding her voice to the party’s recent reversal of a vote-by-mail push.

“I hope that people will not depend on the mail,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly press conference.

The California Democrat blamed the Trump administration, who she said “have done all they can to dismantle the Postal System.”

Democrats accuse Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of purposely slowing mail service, although many of the changes to sorting machines and mailbox locations were scheduled long before DeJoy took the job in June. DeJoy has halted efforts he implemented to reduce overtime costs.

Mail-in balloting could be problematic in several states that are new to the process. The post office warned earlier this year that voters should return ballots as early as possible and that waiting until days before the election could result in late postmarks that would exclude ballots.

Pelosi said the Nov. 3 election is too close now for voters to put their ballots in the mail.

“Even the Postal Service is saying it’s too late now to mail a first-class piece of mail, to take more than five or six days to reach its destination, it just speaks for itself,” Pelosi said.

House and Senate Democrats pushed for the expansion of mail-in balloting nationwide in response to the coronavirus outbreak. President Trump said mail-in balloting will contribute to voter fraud and uncounted ballots.

Even Democrats now worry that ballots will be discounted if sent by mail and are urging voters to deliver them in person. Democratic voters are more likely to vote by mail.