The United States Postal Service (USPS), which is playing an outsized role in the 2020 US Presidential Election due to a flood of postal voting, has been ordered by a federal judge to use express deliveries if necessary to get ballots delivered to the authorities in time to be counted as part of the poll which takes place today (November 3), according to US media reports.
Plaintiffs argue that well-documented delays in the mail system could invalidate tens of thousands of ballots across the country, particularly in the 28 states that do not accept votes that arrive after Election Day, even if postmarked before.
According to the court order, USPS must use its “Express Mail Network on Monday, Tuesday (of this week), and after Election Day to expedite ballots out of local service area to ensure timely delivery of ballots, unless there is a faster surface option.”
Over 122m postal ballots
After reversing controversial cost-saving operational cutbacks in August and following several court orders, the postal utility has committed extensive additional resources to ensuring that it can handle election mail as legally required. Measures include longer working times, extra pickups, faster handling of specially marked election mail and additional deliveries between October 26 and November 24.
In a statement last week, USPS said that since September 4, it had processed and delivered more than 122 million ballots, including both blank ballots delivered from election officials to voters and completed ballots from voters to election officials.
According to the latest media estimates, close to 100 million voters, out of around 250 million registered voters, have already voted, either by mail or in person at early polling stations but the figures have not been accompanied by a breakdown by category.
Slower First-Class Mail deliveries
However, due to an increase in overall mail volume of all types, COVID-19 impacts, the October 12 federal holiday and ongoing efforts to prioritize and advance the nation’s ballots, First-Class Mail service performance was 80.85% for the week of October 17 through October 23, USPS' statement noted.
This compares with a First-Class Mail service performance for the previous week of 85.58%, which was itself a 0.57% decrease from the week of October 3.
Kristin Seaver, USPS' Chief Retail and Delivery Officer, commented: “With increased volume in both mail and packages and external challenges, mail is moving.
“The Postal Service continues to implement extraordinary measures to advance and expedite the delivery of the nation’s ballots. These efforts include extra pick-ups, extra deliveries, and delivery units running regular collections on Sunday. From today through Sunday, local carriers will be stopping at and checking every residential mailbox for outbound mail, including ballots.”
She continued: “While our ongoing commitment is to maintain the highest level of service performance for all mail, we acknowledge that our full focus and prioritization on election ballots is having a near-term impact on the overall on-time performance of other products throughout the network.
“Additionally, we are actively engaging with our management teams and union leadership to ensure we have the right level of staffing and oversight given the increased impacts of COVID-19, and our unwavering commitment to keeping employees and customers safe.”
USPS under close scrutiny
USPS' delivery performance has come under close scrutiny as polling day has edged closer, particularly in the so-called 'swing states' where thousands of voters are mailing ballots instead of visiting voting stations in person because of COVID-19. Democratic Party state leaders, along with voting access groups have called for judicial oversight of USPS' work.
In contrast, in some of these swing states, the Republican Party has questioned the validity of ballots that voters mail before Election Day but are delivered to election officials later – making the USPS' efforts over the past few days crucial to getting votes in on time to be counted.
In an order issued last Sunday by US District judge, Emmet Sullivan, to which USPS agreed, said the postal service must reinforce its “special procedures” to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.”
USPS is also tasked with underlining to managers that “all ballots with a local destination must be cleared and processed on the same day or no later than the next morning for delivery to local offices, from now through at least November 7.”
The order added: “To reiterate, all efforts should first be made to ensure the return of completed ballots by the Election Day deadline. It is possible, but not certain, that ballots returned at later dates will be counted (if postmarked by Election Day or lacking a postmark).”
In 28 states, election officials must receive absentee ballots by the end of Election Day for them to count. In the remaining 22 states, ballots can count up to certain deadlines (which vary by state) if they are postmarked by Election Day.
