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Investigation underway on whether mail is being held up at Redmond postal center

REDMOND, Wash. — Attorney General Bob Ferguson says his office is looking into a Redmond postal center and whether the USPS is holding up the mail there.

Washington Congresswoman Suzan DelBene had called for an investigation on allegations of election interference at the Redmond postal processing facility, known as the East DDC.

Her office said that over the past few months, numerous constituents and workers closely associated with the facility have shared information showing a disturbing pattern of actions that would intentionally slow down the facility’s ability to process mail.

DelBene wants Ferguson to take a look at the problem.

“I am concerned that these allegations, if true, constitute politically motivated election interference,” DelBene stated in a letter to Ferguson. “Washington uses an entirely vote-by-mail system, and over two million voters in our state have already cast their ballot, making timely processing of ballots by the USPS critical so that every vote can be counted.”

In a letter to DelBene, the Postal Service said:

“At the East DDC six machines were removed from service between July 31 and August 14, one of which was subsequently returned to service. Parts from the removed machines were used to extend the capacity of the active machine. It is not in the best interest of the postal service to disclose information on the existing capacity and total machine inventory at the East DDC.”

The AG’s office also released this statement to KIRO 7 Wednesday morning:

“We defeated Postmaster General DeJoy’s attempted election interference in court. A federal judge in Yakima ordered the Postal Service to restore all sorting machines necessary to deliver election mail in a timely way. I will ensure they follow the court order. My team follows up on every complaint we receive about these issues, whether that’s from a member of Congress or an individual. This will be handled the same way.”

DelBene also told KIRO 7 that the USPS' stance on this issue essentially means that she and no one else really knows whether the machines here are working or how much mail is going through successfully.