U.S. Senator Ron Johnson believes U.S. Postal Service is prepared to handle this fall’s election despite concerns about delivery delays. Concerns have been raised in recent months about the USPS’ ability to keep up with what could be a record for mail-in voting due to the pandemic. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy implemented a number of changes when he took over in July in an effort to make the service more cost-efficient including restrictions on extra trips and removing some mail sorting machines. Johnson sat on a hearing with DeJoy as a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He believes DeJoy should be commended, not condemned for the moves he has made to improve the U.S. Postal Service’s financial outlook for the long haul.

Johnson says almost half of the $8.8 billion in operating losses the U.S. Postal Service accrued last year was due to unscheduled and penalty overtime. He defended the decision to remove some mail sorting machines, citing a decrease in first-class mail and an increase in parcels. Johnson says election officials and voters have to account for the delivery process before they mail in their votes as close to over one million absentee ballots are mailed this week.