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Efforts by some members of Congress to observe firsthand how mail is being processed at large facilities in the final weeks of the election have been blocked—a policy departure by the U.S. Postal Service for visits that were once routinely approved, the lawmakers said.
It’s unclear how many lawmakers have sought access to postal plants, but at least five, all Democrats, said they’d received inconsistent explanations for the denials.
Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, visited a large mail-processing plant in Kearny, N.J., on Monday, according to his staff, after being refused entry last month. He told the Postal Service on Sunday that he was coming.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Mr. Pascrell said he wanted to see if the plant is keeping up with its workload, including handling mail-in ballots. He said that he and two other members of the New Jersey congressional delegation never got beyond the lobby.
Mr. Pascrell said that right before the 2018 midterm election, he toured that same facility without incident or objection.