• In a scathing statement on Monday, the president of the American Postal Workers Union blasted President Trump’s criticisms of mail-in voting and his suggestion to delay the Presidential election.
  • Mark Dimondstein warned that the administration’s “ongoing attempt to discredit ‘vote-by-mail’ and demonize postal workers is wrong and heads us down a dangerous path toward dictatorship.”
  • There is no evidence that absentee voting leads to more fraud, as Trump claims, and Dimondstein encouraged voters to “enthusiastically embrace voting by mail.”
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

As President Donald Trump continues his campaign against mail-in voting, which recently culminated in the suggestion to delay the November presidential election instead of voting absentee, the leader of a major US postal-workers union isn’t having it.

Mark Dimondstein, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, said in a statement on Monday that Trump’s efforts may result in a slide away from democracy.

“This assault on the US Constitution, our democratic rights and the ongoing attempt to discredit ‘vote-by-mail’ and demonize postal workers is wrong and heads us down a dangerous path toward dictatorship,” Dimondstein said. The statement was posted on the union’s website.

For months, Trump and many of his supporters have railed against mail-in voting, claiming without proof that it facilitates voter fraud. The campaign reached its peak when, on July 30, Trump floated postponing the November election, tweeting that it would be “the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history” due to widespread absentee voting.

However, there is no evidence that mail-in voting results in more fraud, and many White House officials - including Trump himself - have voted by mail in the past.

"Independent studies have determined that since 2000, more than 250 million votes have been cast by mail, including 31 million in the 2018 election, virtually absent of fraud," Dimondstein said. "During this pandemic, anyone who believes in the right to vote should enthusiastically embrace voting by mail. Without it, tens of millions of voters will be denied the opportunity to safely exercise their cherished right to vote."

Dimondstein's statement comes as operational changes at the US Postal Service have slowed down mail service and cast into doubt the service's ability to deliver mail-in ballots promptly.

In a series of memos last month, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Trump donor, ordered mail carriers to stop taking overtime and to leave mail for the next day instead of making extra trips. Dimondstein previously told Business Insider that those cost-cutting measures would "likely lead to slower, less prompt, and less reliable, and really less efficient, service."

The USPS, for its part, said that it has "ample capacity to adjust our nationwide processing and delivery network to meet projected election and political mail volume, including any additional volume that may result as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic," per The New York Times.

The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

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