The Globe first reported that Republican Rep. Mark Amodei would be issuing a letter of opposition to the proposed USPS plan to transfer mail operations from Reno to Sacramento.

Late yesterday, Amodei was joined by Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen to voice their concerns in a letter sent to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. (see below).

Their letter of opposition follows a unanimous vote on Tuesday against the move from the Washoe County Commissioners and the related concerns expressed by Washoe County Interim Registrar Cari-Ann Burgess.

In an interview last week with the Reno Gazette Journal (RGJ), Washoe County interim registrar Cari-Ann Burgess admits she is highly concerned about mail-in ballots for the upcoming general election due to the expected move of the Reno mail processing operations to California. “It’s going to be terrible for our elections,” Burgess warned. “To be honest with you, I wouldn’t even put it in the mail,” she said of a November election ballot. “I would drop it off at one of our vote centers.”

In their letter, the bipartisan delegation highlights “the potential impact of such changes to mail service reliability, the local economy, and jobs in the community” and voice their frustration related to the lack of transparency related to the USPS decision.

On February 06, 2024, USPS released its Initial Finding of its Mail Processing Facility Review for the Reno P&DC, in which USPS determined it will likely downsize the Reno P&DC to a Local Processing Center (LPC) and that “the business case supports transferring mail processing outgoing operations” from Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento, California. In its review, USPS does not provide information about the study on which it relied to reach this determination, nor does it provide any analysis on local impacts of moving mail processing completely outside of the State of Nevada. With this in mind, we are concerned about the plan to downsize the Reno P&DC and move its operations to California, and frustrated by the lack of transparency from USPS about the process for making this significant determination.

They further note that the over 220,000 Nevada veterans who receive their life-saving medications through the mail may encounter significant delays, and further emphasize the winter weather conditions between Reno and Sacramento that would impede the two-day mail delivery standard, “a standard that USPS already struggles to meet.”

Echoing the concerns of Burgess, the elected officials emphasize their serious concerns of mail-in voting for Northern Nevadans:

Diverting their mail outside of the state and back again raises serious concerns. In this same vein, sending over one hundred thousand mail- in-ballots from Nevada to California before they are sent back to Northern Nevada is extremely concerning to election officials in the state.

Washoe County Commissioner Mike Clark told The Globe, “The USPS tried this years ago and received the public’s backlash and backed down. This second attempt was announced with not much time for the public to respond. The County Commission took the necessary steps of unanimously voting against this ill-timed and opaque decision made without the necessary time for public notice, comment, or supportive documentation to defend their decision.”

The Globe will continue to follow and provide updates to this story.