Tell the Senate to reject Trump’s postal board nominees

Why this Matters

Oregon votes by mail. Every registered voter on this coast gets a ballot delivered by the Postal Service, and under a 2021 state law the postmark is what decides a close call: mailed by 8 p.m. on election day, counted if it reaches the county clerk within seven days. The U.S. Supreme Court preserved that grace period in Watson v. Republican National Committee on June 29, 2026. What that means in practice is plain: a Postal Service decision about where mail gets sorted and stamped is a decision about whether an Oregon vote counts.

We have already watched that happen in this state. When USPS moved processing out of Medford in early 2024, the postmarking machine went with it, and southern Oregon mail started riding to Portland to get stamped. Eugene lost operations to the same Portland hub. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley asked the Postal Service to halt the consolidation plan, and Oregon elections officials warned publicly that it could affect election mail.

The USPS Board of Governors is who makes those calls. It sets service standards, controls the finances and long-term direction of the agency, and it is the only body that can hire or fire the Postmaster General. On July 22, 2026, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 7 to 5 to send two of the president's nominees, Jeffrey Brodsky and William Gallo, to the full Senate. Brodsky spent three decades in corporate restructuring, taking apart distressed companies for investors. Gallo is a retired commodities broker. Neither has postal experience or any record on universal service, rural delivery, or election mail.

This is not an abstraction for Lincoln County. In May 2017 county voters passed Measure 21-177, banning aerial pesticide spraying, and became the first county in the country to do it at the ballot box. The margin was 6,994 to 6,933. Sixty-one votes. State courts later struck the ban down on preemption grounds, but the vote itself was real, and sixty-one is a margin that a few slow days on a rural route can erase. Whoever decides how fast mail moves through Tidewater, Yachats, Seal Rock, and Waldport has a hand on results like that one.

Americans for Financial Reform is running a letter asking senators to vote no on both nominees. The full Senate has not voted yet. An Oregon voice on this is worth two minutes.

Steps to Take

Step 1

Sign the letter through Americans for Financial Reform's action form. It routes to both of your senators and takes about two minutes.

Step 2

Before you send it, replace a line or two with your own words. Say what town you live in and how your mail actually arrives. Staff sort form letters into a tally; a letter from a specific address in Waldport gets read.

Step 3

Call as well as write. Reach Senator Ron Wyden through his contact form or one of his Oregon offices, and Senator Jeff Merkley through his contact form or his D.C. office at 202-224-3753. Ask the staffer to record a no vote on the confirmation of Jeffrey Brodsky and William Gallo to the USPS Board of Governors.

Step 4

Check your own registration and mailing address at Oregon My Vote. The same tool shows your ballot status and your nearest drop site, which is the backup if delivery here gets slower.

Step 5

Pass it to a neighbor on a rural route. The people most affected by a slower Postal Service are the ones least likely to hear that this vote is happening.

Sample Text

Option 1

Senator, I live in [your town] on the Oregon Coast, and I am asking you to vote no on the confirmation of Jeffrey Brodsky and William Gallo to the USPS Board of Governors.

Oregon votes entirely by mail. Our ballots reach us by post and go back the same way, and under state law a postmark is what makes a late-arriving ballot count. That makes Postal Service service standards an election issue here in a way they are not in most states. We have already seen what consolidation does: when processing moved out of Medford and Eugene, delivery in this part of Oregon got slower, not faster, and Oregon's senators wrote to the Postal Service asking it to stop.

Neither nominee has postal experience or any record defending universal service, rural delivery, or election mail. Brodsky's career is in corporate restructuring and Gallo's is in commodities trading. The board they would join sets the service standards that decide whether a ballot mailed from Waldport or Yachats arrives in time to be counted, and it is the only body that can hire or fire the Postmaster General.

Please vote no on both nominations. Thank you for your work on this.

Copy to Clipboard

Option 2

Hi, my name is [your name] and I'm a constituent in [your town], Oregon. I'm calling to ask the Senator to vote no on Jeffrey Brodsky and William Gallo for the USPS Board of Governors. Oregon votes by mail, our ballots depend on the Postal Service getting them delivered and postmarked on time, and neither nominee has any postal or election-mail experience. Could you record that as a no? Thank you.