Thread by @jseldin

.@HomelandDems' @BennieGThompson opens hearing on "Ensuring Every Vote Counts" criticizing @POTUS for "waging an attack on the Postal Service to serve his own political interests"

"The president has told the public that vote-by-mail is rigged, illegal or fraudulent more than 100 times since March" per @BennieGThompson "...undeterred by the fact that he's been contradicted by DHS & the intelligence community"

"The president has openly acknowledged that he is depriving the Postal Service of additional funding bcs he is concerned the expanding voting opportunities will hurt reelection chances" per @BennieGThompson in opening statement

"The president must stop peddling disinformation that could suppress voter participation & could undermine confidence in election results" says @HomelandDems's @BennieGThompson

"Mr Chairman, I have to admit I'm disappointed that we're holding this hearing today" per @HomelandGOP's @RepMikeRogersAL "This committee has had a tendency to hold hearings outside its jurisdiction & today's no exception"

"We have no oversight or legislative role" re @USPS

"It's clear the only reason we're having this hearing is to further the Democrats' crazy postal conspiracy" per @RepMikeRogersAL

"Despite what the Democrats say, the postmaster general is not conspiring w/the president to suppress the vote"

"The facts are, the Postal Service, the Post Office, is more than capable of delivering ballots to voters & returning them to election officials in a timely matter" per @RepMikeRogersAL "The problem isn't w/the Post Office - it's with the states"

"The fact is, there's no perfect way to vote" per @RepMikeRogersAL

"Each method poses risks for fraud, manipulation or error. But vote-by-mail is the least secure method" Rep Rogers adds

"That is only exacerbated when states allow ballots to be returned to unmonitored drop boxes" per @RepMikeRogersAL ""With no way to ensure the chain of custody, drop boxes only encourage election fraud"

"We want this fall's election to be successful" per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson "We want the system to be secure & protected against any threats, foreign and domestic"

"The #coronavirus pandemic along w/what seems to be near constant & escalating rhetoric abt our elections has brought historic pressures on our abilities in the states to meet this goal" per #Michigan's @JocelynBenson

"Proactive, data-driven planning & collaboration at the state and local level, supported by federal resources can result in successful elections this year" per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson, pointing to recent primaries

"However, the emerging challenges in efficient postal delivery w/the United States Postal Service have created enormous uncertainties" per @JocelynBenson

#Michigan has also added secured drop boxes, per Sec of State @JocelynBenson

"At a time when a record number of citizens want to vote & vote by mail, nothing can replace the full utility of a function postal service. So we hope the federal gvt prioritizes fixing these issues or we face potentially significant challenges come November" per @JocelynBenson

"Postal workers are up to the task & the Postal Service has ample resources to safely secure accept & deliver every mail ballot it receives" per @APWUnational President Mark Dimondstein, representing abt 200k of the 630k @USPS employees

Increase in vote-by-mail can be "easily handled even if all 350 million voters in the country receive and return their ballots by mail" per @APWUnational's Dimondstein, noting USPS handles about 3 billion pieces of mail during a typical holiday season

* Thats about 3 billion pieces of mail during a typical holiday season PER WEEK, per @APWUnational's Dimondstein

"Vote by mail has proven to be an incredibly safe & secure method of voting" per @APWUnational's Dimondstein "More than 5 states conduct their elections entirely by mail..."

In #Oregon, in 19 years more than 100 million votes cast by mail with only 15 cases of fraud, he says

.@APWUnational and other postal unions will hold Postmaster General to his word that more resources will be made available to ensure quality, speedy service during election season, per Dimondstein

In #Kentucky "we fashioned fair & clear rules well in advance of the [primary] election," with no-excuse absentee voting, per @KYSecState Michael Adams

"I would urge you to let Kentucky be Kentucky, let Michigan be Michigan, & respect the laboratories of democracy"

For November, with twice as many voters expected to turn out compared to the June primary, "we are tightening the absentee voting standards somewhat" per @KYSecState

Absentee voting & vote by mail - "The vast majority of the states, it is one & the same" Tammy Patrick with the Democracy Fund tells the committee

"Some previously called it absentee voting & they've changed their statutes, like #Florida did"

"There are a handful of states were they do make a subtle distinction in their statutes" per Patrick, explaining that has to do with whether voter has to request a ballot evert time or gets the ballot mailed automatically

#Michigan "now conducted 3 elections alone this year w/the full right to vote by mail...with zero reports of evidence of fraud" per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson

"Our election this year was clean" per @KYSecState Michael Adams about his state's June primary, in which 75% of voters voted by mail

"I have confidence in all of my colleagues of both parties who are in my position" per @KYSecState Adams "They're all ppl of integrity. They're all ppl held accountable by their voters to hold free & fair elections"

"We have really tight protocols here in #Kentucky"

#Michigan has nearly 1,000 election drop boxes to date, per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson

Those drop boxes are either in gvt offices or are under surveillance to ensure security, she says

"The demand for drop boxes in my state in the primary came from Republicans" per @KYSecState Michael Adams

"A lot of Republicans are comfortable" with dropping off ballots in the drop boxes, he adds

"In November, we're going to have more drop boxes and we're going to put them outdoors, but we're going to have them under continuous monitoring by gvt" per @KYSecState "But to be frank, these things are more secure than mailboxes"

"Our elections will be secure" per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson "The challenge is, is ensuring everyone knows that"

"Efforts to sow those seeds of doubt in our electorates' minds have come from domestic sources & from foreign sources, this year more than ever before"

To help share trusted info on voting, "we've partnered w/professional athletes, business leaders & other influencers to help get that information out in a way that will reach the voters & push back against the rhetoric" per #Michigan's @JocelynBenson

"We've not been breached but there has been rattling of our doorknob" per @KYSecState Michael Adams, asked about possible #Russia repeat of #Election2016 in #Election2020

"We have not encountered as our neighbors in other states may have, any significant attempts at the state level or at any local levels to interfere w/our systems" per #Michigan's @JocelynBenson, noting improved security

"But we're 60 days out & a lot can happen in those 60 days"

"Bottom line for us is that we are prepared if that knock comes to push back & also to publicize it and raise awareness about it" per @JocelynBenson

During #Kentucky's June primary @USNationalGuard was called out to polling places by governor, per @KYSecState "but they were not in uniform &they served a purely support role"

"They helped in sanitization. They helped in moving equipment around...but they were not poll workers"

National Guard, by #Kentucky law, cannot be poll workers, per @KYSecState

"There's also the concern that some ppl could find that to be intimidating" he adds

In #Michigan's August primary: 2.5 million ppl voted, 1.6 million voted by mail & just over 10,694 mail-in ballots could not be counted, per @JocelynBenson

6,400 "couldn't be counted bcs they were sent in prior to election day but were received in the 2 days that followed"

"That is a big deal. Those votes should have counted" per #Michigan Sec of State @JocelynBenson "In my view, voters should not be disenfranchised doing everything they're supposed to do if another system, particularly the Postal Service, fails to deliver their ballot on time"

With another 2,225 of the ballots that could not be counted, "either had a signature missing or the signature didn't match" per @JocelynBenson