Jeff Bezos Suddenly Doesn’t Like Voting By Mail

By Jennifer Van Laar | Jan 23, 2021 11:15 PM ET

Billionaire Jeff Bezos claims that mail-in voting is safe and secure and that its results are valid and unquestionable when it suits his business interests (at The Washington Post and Amazon Web Services), but says that only an in-person election can be “valid, fair and successful” when it comes to his Amazon employees voting on whether to unionize or not.

Billionaire Jeff Bezos claims that mail-in voting is safe and secure and that its results are valid and unquestionable when it suits his business interests (at The Washington Post and Amazon Web Services), but says that only an in-person election can be “valid, fair and successful” when it comes to his Amazon employees voting on whether to unionize or not.

NEW – Amazon and Jeff Bezos do not want their workers voting by mail-in-ballots on unionization. An Amazon spokesperson tells CNN the company is seeking a “valid, fair and successful election” and in-person would ensure that.

— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) January 24, 2021

Hmm. Imagine that.

Employees at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama facility are scheduled to vote on unionization in February, and last week the NLRB ruled that due to an “outbreak” of COVID the election would be conducted by mail ballot. Amazon filed an appeal Jan. 21 asking the NLRB to reconsider its decision, stating that a mail-ballot election would “disenfranchise” workers because of its lack of security, and that the NRLB failed to outline what constituted an “outbreak.”

Amazon said the NLRB’s Acting Regional Director, Lisa Henderson, “reached the remarkable conclusion that any level of infection or potential infection among employees counts as an ‘outbreak.’”

Amazon said that at its Bessemer facility, 2.88% of Amazon’s 7,575 employees and third-party workers at the facility — or 218 people — tested positive during the 14-day period ending on January 7. Amazon rejected the idea that this would be considered an outbreak.

“If true, facilities will be in a constant state of ‘outbreak’ unless and until the virus all but disappears, with no manual elections occurring until that unknown time,” the filing read, also citing that a mail election could “disenfranchise dozens or hundreds of voters” because it is imperfect.

Heather Knox, Amazon spokesperson, provided a statement to CNN Business reiterating the company’s belief that:

“[T]he best approach to a valid, fair and successful election is one that is conducted manually, in-person, making it easy for associates to verify and cast their vote in close proximity to their workplace.”

“Amazon provided the NLRB with a safe, confidential and convenient proposal for associates to vote onsite which is in the best interest of all parties — associate convenience, vote fidelity, and timeliness of vote count,” Knox said in the statement. “ We will continue to insist on measures for a fair election, and we want everyone to vote, so our focus is ensuring that’s possible.”

What isn’t fair or secure about 6,000 employees receiving ballots to their home, Bezos? Are you afraid that union goons will intercept the ballots before employees get them? Are you afraid that union goons will harass employees for their vote since they, too, will have access to the list of employees and their addresses? Are you afraid that union goons will show up at employees’ homes to harvest the ballots?

Are you afraid that in the extended time frame for the election that ballot-counting can be a mess and inaccurate? Are you afraid that it will be more difficult to tell if an employee in fact returned a particular ballot or if someone returned it fraudulently?

If so, why would you argue that none of that possibly could have happened in an election with far more at stake, namely, the 2020 Presidential election?

Fortunately for Bezos, the number of employees voting in the election is finite so there won’t be extra ballots found in the middle of the night, all voting for unionization.