USPS ordered to check facilities for delayed ballots [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The USPS was ordered by a U.S District judge to have a thorough check of mail ballots, particularly in known election battlegrounds across the country.
• The ruling was a response to several groups’ lawsuits against the USPS’s last changes on its mail handling facilities.
• The postal office confirmed the arrival of 122 million blank and certified ballots on Tuesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, a judge obliged the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to review several mail handling offices for late ballots and release them immediately for delivery. The order was especially for hot election zones, including Florida, Pennsylvania, and other states.

The order also covers election battlegrounds such as northern New England, central Pennsylvania, South Florida, greater South Carolina, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, Alabama. Cities of Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, Lakeland, Detroit, and Florida are also included in the order list.

According to reports, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave the directive to postal officers, advising them to complete the assessments by 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) and endorse by 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT), certifying that no ballots are missing.

Sullivan’s order is following the complaint by concerned voting rights groups, including Vote Forward and Latino community organizations.

More than a few states will only consider counting mailed ballots that arrived up only by the end of Tuesday in their poll outcomes.

In a related report in August, USPS put off its cost-cutting programs, including getting rid of post boxes and mail processing equipment utilized by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a known supporter of President Donald Trump.

Civil rights organizations and state attorneys general agree that the implemented changes would cause the election mail delivery slower and make it harder for the electorate to cast their votes amidst the COVID-19 crisis.

Meanwhile, the postal service announced it had already delivered before Tuesday, around 122 million blank and finalized ballots.

Source: AOL