USPS to Apply 'Extraordinary Measures' to Deliver Mail-In Ballots on Time
The United States Postal Service (USPS) said Friday that it would implement several "extraordinary measures" to ensure that all mail-in ballots would be delivered in time to be counted.
The announcement was made after USPS leadership received a set of orders from a federal judge on Tuesday.
The judge ordered certain steps that the USPS must take to ensure that ballots are quickly delivered as voters deal with absentee voting deadlines.
Recent court filings showed that the agency delivered fewer ballots on-time in critical battleground states on Thursday than the previous day.
One of the USPS' measures that will be implemented is the special lines at post offices, which include drive-thru options for people who want their ballot postmarked and mailed. The said measure would prioritize people with ballots.
USPS will also entertain "handoff" of ballots to election offices even after the post offices close for the day but before the polls close, according to a CNN report. With this, the ballots will be given a chance to be included in the counting.
The USPS also said it would try to segregate any ballots with misprinted barcodes that determine where the mail is funneled through the USPS system.
It will also collect mails on Sunday for some routes and will do early Monday and Tuesday collections with ballot deliveries to election offices on the same day.
Court filings on Friday showed that the agency's delivery movement had impeded the processing of scores.
On Thursday, the number of completed ballots being delivered to the election offices decreased. The case was also the same for a number of blank ballots being delivered to voters.
The election day is less than a week away, making the process of eliminating election scare even more important. Mail ballots do not count if they arrive after the polls close in more than half of the states.
USPS said it processed more than 1.7 million ballots on Thursday. However, it admitted that on a national level, it moved fewer ballots on time on Thursday than on Wednesday.
From the score of 97 percent, it dropped to 95 percent. The score is even worse in some of the country's swing states.
The lowest, which is Central Pennsylvania, scored only 71 percent of ballots on time on Thursday. Meanwhile, Northern Ohio, central Florida, parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the Mid-Carolinas all performed below the national average for on-time delivery.
USPS blamed the latest delays on staffing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is just one of the many other reasons.
"At the same time that staffing unavailability has become a factor, there has been an increase volume in package and market dominant products," USPS said in a CNN report.
USPS is now coordinating closely with the USPS inspector general to fix the issues. The agency is also reported to be holding daily troubleshooting calls with problem areas.
USPS previously received a backlash, with many questioning its ability to deliver the mail-in ballots in time to be counted. Apart from that, some of their employees were allegedly involved in federal crimes such as dumping mails with some containing election ballots.
A recent mail-in ballot dumping was reported by Fox News, wherein the ballots were discovered in a pile of discarded mails in a trash in Kentucky.
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