Associated Press
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered U.S. Postal Service inspectors to sweep more than two dozen mail processing facilities for lingering mail-in ballots and for those ballots to be sent out immediately.
The order, which includes centers in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, south Florida and parts of Wisconsin, comes after national delivery delays leading up to the election and concerns the agency wouldn’t be able to deliver ballots on time.
The Postal Service’s ability to handle the surge of mail-in ballots became a concern after its new leader, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor, implemented a series of policy changes that delayed mail nationwide this summer. Delivery times have since rebounded but have consistently remained below the agency’s internal goals of having more than 95% of first-class mail delivered within five days, with service in some battleground areas severely lagging, according to postal data.
Postal and law enforcement officials investigated after four dozen mail-in ballots were found undelivered at a post office near Homestead on the Florida peninsula’s southern tip.
U.S. Postal Service Office investigators said Saturday they found six completed ballots and 42 blank ballots among piles of undelivered mail in that post office.
“The investigation is ongoing and is being closely coordinated with U.S. Postal Service to ensure all delayed mail has been properly handled and delivered,” said Scott Pierce, special agent in charge of the postal service’s inspector general’s office in South Florida, in a statement.
Mark Travers, South Florida president for the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the Miami Herald that he alerted postal service managers more than a week ago about the backlog, but nothing was done.
The investigation was launched Friday after Florida House Minority Leader Kionne McGhee tweeted video taken by a postal worker of the piles of undelivered mail.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
