'Full-scale attack on voting by mail:' Milwaukee adds absentee ballot drop boxes; Kaul files suit against USPS

MILWAUKEE - The U.S. postmaster general on Tuesday announced that he is halting the removal of mailboxes and sorting machines in the face of criticism over ballots not being delivered for the November presidential election.

After cutting overtime, the U.S. Postal Service began warning states last week that it could not guarantee mailed ballots would be delivered in time to be counted. 

President Donald Trump votes by mail himself but has said he believes it is a source of voter fraud. In an interview with Fox Business, he admitted to blocking postal service funding.

"They need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots...That's election money basically," President Trump said. "If they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting."

Facing upcoming congressional hearings and a slew of state lawsuits -- including from Wisconsin -- Louis DeJoy, the new postmaster general, said Tuesday: "We will deliver the nation's election mail on time."

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul is among at least 20 state attorneys general to file suit, arguing that the Postal Service acted outside its authority to make service changes and violated federal law in doing so.

"That's a big step in the right direction," Kaul said. "There are already impacts on mail delivery, and we're going to continue to seek those changes."

Kaul hopes Congress will take action, but will continue with legal action. Despite the apparent backtracking, it is unclear if changes will actually be reversed.

Absentee ballot drop box

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the city is installing more than a dozen drop boxes -- purchased through a multi-million dollar grant -- to make it easier for voters to drop off their absentee ballots before Election Day to combat a “full-scale attack on voting by mail."

Barrett spoke Tuesday to around 90 Democratic activists, officeholders and others in conjunction with the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

"We know that voting integrity is an important issue, and we take that very, very seriously," said Barrett. "We're still a month, roughly, a little over a month away from having them here. That's the hope."

He described drop boxes as one way to fight back in battleground Wisconsin against President Trump’s opposition to mail-in voting.

Other cities across the state are taking similar steps, anticipating a massive surge in absentee voting this fall.