Tom Temin I don’t know how much that actually contributes to the Postal Service’s average daily volume, but it’s something they need to look at and discuss.

Mitchell Miller Yeah, absolutely. And many lawmakers, before the election, worried that the U.S. Postal Service wasn’t up to the task. They were concerned because there was a big increase in mail-in voting. Obviously, there were more in 2020 because of the pandemic. But evidence has shown that many more people are mailing in their ballots. And of course, there was also in-person early voting. One person who has studied the issue is Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is closely following several files. I had the opportunity to speak to him recently. One of them is the Postal Service and its ability to deliver ballot mail on time. He said it appears the postal service as a whole has been up to the task. Some concerns have been raised by Secretaries of State and others. This is a big concern in Virginia, but so far he says the evidence is good and everything is going well. Another concern he has as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is misinformation, and he urges voters to be vigilant.

Mark Warner (audio clip) I think we’re all going to be tested. There are other countries, China, Russia and Iran in particular, that want to interfere in our elections, and they have their choice of candidate. But ultimately what they want most is to undermine our confidence in our system.

Mitchell Miller Now, Warner and other lawmakers have also received security briefings regarding any potential threats to the Capitol after the election. So far, he says he hasn’t seen anything specific in this regard. And he was also encouraged that there were no widespread reports of threats against election volunteers. But the other thing he mentioned in our conversation is that people should really be ready for a long election night and maybe a long election week. With such a tight race and lawyers ready to intervene in battleground states, we may not know the results of this election for several days. You will recall that in 2020, the election was not called for Joe Biden until the weekend after Tuesday’s election. So while many people are ready for this election to end, it probably won’t end tomorrow.

Tom Temin Yeah, it’s not exactly like FDR and Thomas Dewey in 1944, when Roosevelt was having dinner and already knew he’d won.

Mitchell Miller Exactly.

Tom Temin Yeah. Well, in 2000 the case went to the Supreme Court and it took days and weeks. Chad’s famous problems. Damn, feathers.

Mitchell Miller Amazing.

Tom Temin Yeah. We managed to ruin everything ourselves without any help from Iran and all these countries. Anyway, the other issue I guess you’re watching is control of the House. And the Senate seems really close.

Mitchell Miller It is. It really is going to be the case. Many people actually think the race for the House will be as close as the race for the White House. Basically, there are about two dozen races across the country that will actually decide whether the Republicans will stay in power or be ousted by the Democrats. Many of them are in New York and California. And because they’re in California, that’s another reason why we probably won’t know the results of who is actually in charge of the United States House of Representatives for not just a week, but probably several weeks. As you know, many electoral results take a long time to become known, sometimes several weeks. So we’ll have to see what happens there. There are also very close races in Virginia and Maryland. And really, with only a margin of four votes one way or the other, it’s going to be super, super slim. And then you move on to the United States Senate, another very, very close battle. But it appears Republicans have the advantage heading into Election Day. There have been so many instances where Democrats were on the defensive and they knew it before the election. So with West Virginia likely going to the Republicans and Montana Sen. Jon Tester, a struggling Democrat against Tim Sheehy, a Montana businessman, it appears these two races alone could decide the Senate American. And then there are several others in the battleground states. And it’s really going to be, I think, a question of what kind of margin the Republicans can get as we move forward and see what happens over the next few days.

Tom Temin We speak with Mitchell Miller, WTOP’s Capitol Hill correspondent. And of course, the reason we’re talking about this here is because very different visions of federal bureaucracy, agency funding, and priorities could change significantly depending on what happens in Congress and, of course, the House White.

Mitchell Miller RIGHT. Absolutely. And we’re probably going to see this play out with the lame duck session. There is obviously the enormous problem of obtaining federal aid following hurricanes Helene and Milton. And one of the first things lawmakers are going to do is defund the Small Business Administration. Just last week, there were senators from North Carolina, Louisiana and Florida. They tabled a bill. Basically, they want to give more money to the SBA. Over half a billion dollars for the loan program, which is essentially exhausted because of so many things that have happened related to these hurricanes. So they really need to reinvest that money. The question is how much money will be approved and how quickly. And I think it will also depend, as you pointed out, on who knows whether they come to power or stay in power in January. And so this is really going to reorganize a lot of federal funds and really affect a lot of federal agencies.

Tom Temin And briefly, when does Congress actually return to session?

Mitchell Miller Believe it or not, they’re only coming back a week from Tuesday. So we will already be well into November before their return. And let’s not forget that they also have the broader issue of FEMA funding. They must replenish disaster aid related to it. And by the way, they have to approve a budget. So there will be a lot of work to do during the lame duck session.

Tom Temin And by the way, what do the fortifications around the Capitol look like because of the ongoing elections?

Mitchell Miller RIGHT. Well, we’ve already seen it around the Capitol. Every day I go there, I see proof of it. Many of the gates around the U.S. Capitol have all been modified. They were fortified. There are clearly new security systems in place, more surveillance. And then, of course, you did a lot of work on the Capitol as a whole in the wake of January 6th. There was approximately $3 million in damage that day. So they replaced and hardened many windows. And then, in fact, we see that they are already preparing for the inauguration. There is actually a smaller fenced area surrounding the area in front of the west side of the Capitol. So a lot of preparations are underway at the moment. And of course, behind the scenes, many security preparations are also underway.