The U.S. Postal Service issued a report on Monday, the eve of the 2020 election, addressing a judge’s order to use “extraordinary measures” to get its job done and deliver mailed ballots in time to be counted.
It lists 11 cities and regions of the country, from northern New England to Colorado & Wyoming, stating whether the Covid-19 pandemic or “employee unavailability” is hampering mail-in ballot delivery.
In four of the 11, the USPS report says service “is impacted by Covid-19.” These include Detroit and “Greater Michigan,” both of which are receiving employees from other facilities are being moved in to help. There, and in Colorado/Wyoming and Central Pennsylvania, the USPS says overtime work “is being maximized.”
According to the report, “special extraordinary measures to process and deliver ballots are now in place” in all 11 areas.
All this grows out of an order by a federal judge, aimed at ensuring that mailed ballots get to their destinations on time.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the USPS to pressure postal administrators to use”extraordinary measures” to keep the mail moving, after the agency reported significant recent drops in on-time ballot deliveries for three days straight.
Concerns about whether the Postal Service was up to the task of delivering millions of ballots by Election Day deepened last spring after Republican fundraiser Louis DeJoy was named Postmaster General by the Trump-appointed USPS Board of Governors.
DeJoy proceeded to slash overtime funding for mail workers and to dismantle hundreds of high-speed sorting machines, which he characterized as “cost-cutting” measures.
The resulting delivery slowdown was particularly apparent in battleground states seen as keys to the presidential race.
In his Sunday night order, Judge Sullivan said USPS must re-emphasize to “processing plant managers and division directors” that the special procedures ‘must be put in place to ensure we deliver every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day,’” CNN reported.
Sullivan said the plant managers must “certify they are utilizing the Express Mail network for ballots and that they are quickly delivering local ballots,” CNN said.
The judge also ordered the agency to take additional steps in four states: Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Only Greensboro NC and part of Pennsylvania are mentioned in Monday’s USPS report.
Sullivan also focused on one particular post office in South Florida, where there are allegations of a major backlog of election mail.
“The push to get ballots delivered by Election Day evening has taken on new significance [since] Trump has repeatedly said, without evidence, that mail voting would lead to widespread fraud,” says CNBC.
“On Sunday, [Trump] insisted that the results should be known by Tuesday evening, even though counting absentee ballots often takes much longer than that.”
