[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 82 (Wednesday, May 12, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2496-S2497]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  NOMINATION OF AMBER FAYE McREYNOLDS

  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I wanted to come to the floor tonight to 
spend just a few minutes to speak about Amber McReynolds, President 
Biden's nominee to serve on the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal 
Service.
  Everyone in America relies on the Postal Service, but hardly anyone 
knows about the Board of Governors and how much it matters to all of 
us. The Board sets the policies for the Postal Service. It directs its 
budget and reviews its practices. It also selects the Postmaster 
General.
  But the Board's most important job is to represent the public 
interest, not special interests, and to help manage

[[Page S2497]]

the Postal Service in a way that is competent, professional, and 
completely nonpartisan. That matters for a lot of reasons, but one of 
the most important is the critical and growing role that the post 
office plays in our democracy.
  Over the past year, States all across the country followed our 
example in Colorado by giving people the freedom to vote by mail. As we 
have learned in my State, the case for voting by mail is overwhelming. 
It is more convenient. It is more accessible. It costs a lot less to 
administer and, during a pandemic, it is a lot safer than voting in 
person. But it only works if people have confidence that the post 
office can deliver their ballots in a way that is reliable, secure, and 
completely free of politics.
  That is why I can't think of anyone better to serve on the Board of 
Governors than Amber McReynolds, who is one of the most respected 
election officials not just in Colorado but all across the country.
  Ms. McReynolds spent 13 years serving in Denver's Elections Division, 
including for 7 years as the city's director of elections. Under her 
leadership, Denver became a national model for making it easier for 
people to vote while increasing election security
  She oversaw Denver's transition to a fully vote-by-mail system, where 
every active voter can receive and return their ballot by mail or by 
taking it to a drop box in their community. Last November, we saw 
images on television of people lining up in this country for hours and 
hours on election day to cast their ballots.
  In Colorado, I left my ballot in a secure drop box. There is no line. 
There is no wait. The whole process took 30 seconds, if that. It is 
like that all across Colorado. It is like that all across my State 
because we have made it incredibly easy and secure for Coloradoans to 
cast their ballots.
  Ms. McReynolds had a lot to do with that by introducing one popular 
reform after another. She helped to make Denver the first city in 
America to adopt a ballot tracking system, which notifies voters when 
their ballot is mailed, when it is delivered and counted so they can 
have transparency about the process every step of the way.
  I never have to wonder whether my ballot is in the mail or not or 
whether I sent it back or not because I get an email from the clerk 
telling me. You even get an email that tells you when your ballot has 
been counted. She had a lot to do with that. And after Denver put that 
system in place, cities across the country followed our example.
  Ms. McReynolds also led efforts to launch a new voting system that 
used touchscreen tablets and other technologies from Dominion, a 
fantastic Colorado company, that was much easier for voters to use and 
was just one-tenth the cost of typical voting machines.
  Under her leadership, Denver was also one of the earliest counties in 
Colorado to pioneer something called a risk-limiting audit, where 
election officials match a random sample of ballots against the 
official results to catch any discrepancies. It was a cost-effective 
way to reinforce the public's trust in local elections, and it set the 
stage for Colorado to become the first State in America to introduce 
risk-limiting audits statewide.
  The same thing happened with vote-by-mail. Ms. McReynolds' success in 
Denver helped pave the way for Colorado's transition to a fully vote-
by-mail system in 2013--2013. That was 8 years ago. That is two 
Presidential elections ago that we went to vote-by-mail.
  And just like in Denver, when we did it in the State, none of those 
changes were partisan. We actually transitioned to vote-by-mail under a 
Republican secretary of state. In fact, there was a view at the time 
that moving to vote-by-mail would help Republicans because it made it a 
lot easier for Coloradoans in rural areas to vote.
  In reality, it has made it easier for everybody to vote--Democrats, 
Republicans, and unaffiliated voters, urban voters, suburban voters, 
busy voters, working people, students, everybody. And it is why we 
adopted vote-by-mail statewide, and turnout went up in every 
demographic group, seniors included. Costs went down, and people across 
the State cheered the new system.
  Today, I guarantee you, if a politician in Colorado tried to take 
away vote-by-mail, people would run them out of town. In my State, we 
are proud of the election model that we built in a collaborative, 
nonpartisan way, and Ms. McReynolds deserves a lot of credit for that.
  She is the right kind of leader who isn't satisfied with the status 
quo. She is constantly asking how to make things better, how to make 
things more efficient, and how to make complex systems simpler and more 
accessible and useful to people. That is exactly the kind of experience 
we need at the Postal Service, especially at a time when more Americans 
are voting by mail than ever before.
  The Postal Service needs someone with her expertise, her leadership, 
and her impatience, frankly, with the status quo, and that is why I 
urge my colleagues from both parties to come together and confirm this 
outstanding nominee from my home State of Colorado.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lujan). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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