Colorado Politics

Former Denver elections chief Amber McReynolds tapped for USPS board of governors

Amber McReynolds, former head of the Denver elections division, has been nominated by President Joe Biden to the US Postal Service board of governors, according to the Washington Post. Her nomination has since been confirmed by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Lafayette.

McReynolds, who now heads the Denver-based National Vote at Home Institute, is one of three nominees for the USPS board. The other two are Ron Stroman, the Postal Service’s recently retired deputy postmaster general; and Anton Hajjar, the former general counsel of the American Postal Workers Union, the Post reported.

McReynolds is considered one of the nation’s experts on vote by mail. An October profile in TIME called her “the country’s most outspoken evangelist for voting by mail,” and a guru to other states trying to figure out vote by mail for the first time in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Should those nominations be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the board of governors would be majority Democrat, (although McReynolds is unaffiliated) which the Post reported would “reshape the agency’s leadership and increase pressure on the embattled postmaster general,” Louis DeJoy. Four of the six governors are Republicans; two are Democrats. 

DeJoy told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Wednesday that he has no plans to leave. “Get used to me,” DeJoy reportedly said.

DeJoy, a Republican Party fund raiser, has been under fire almost from his day one appointment as postmaster general last June. While DeJoy was chosen by the board of governors, nine members of the 11-member board of governors had all been selected by then-President Trump. 

DeJoy’s tenure has been plagued by accusations that he has financial conflicts of interest. Forbes reported last September that DeJoy has invested at least $30 million in XPO Logistics, a USPS contractor that was paid $14 million by the Postal Service between June and September alone.

DeJoy was also criticized for slowdowns in mail service in the runup to last November’s election, in which many voters chose to vote by mail for the first time rather than stand in long lines and risk exposure to COVID-19. DeJoy banned overtime, extra trips by postal carriers to deliver late mail and ordered the removal or destruction of high-speed mail-sorting machines. He was aided by Trump, who sought to block additional funding for the USPS last fall as a way of slowing down vote by mail. DeJoy reversed some of those decisions after protests from Congress and an investigation by the USPS Inspector General.

McReynolds has not yet returned a call for comment.

Amber McReynolds, addresses the audience at the History Colorado museum with her “When Women Vote” co-author Stephanie Donner on Jan. 30, 2020. 
Joey Bunch, Colorado Politics
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