The Justice Department has agreed to allow armed agents in ballot-counting facilities across the country to investigate alleged voter fraud.

This is despite a law prohibiting the presence of armed federal officers in polling sites on Election Day.

Officials at the department told federal prosecutors in an email that the law only applies to Nov. 3, not the days afterwar, as New York Times reported. 

The department is led by Trump administration appointee Bill Barr, who has been a supporter of the president. 

Since Tuesday, President Donald Trump has been complaining that Democratic officials at state and local levels are trying to steal the election.

Justice Department's principal associate deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue, who sent the directive, told prosecutors that the statute does not prevent armed federal law enforcement persons from responding to investigate or prevent federal crimes at closed polling places.

Barr appointed Donoghue in July. Donoghue previously served as U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, New York prior to his current role. 

Related story: Election Security Officials Guarantee Mail-In Voting Is Safe From Foreign Threats

The notice comes two days after Election Day. Some swing states have not yet been finished counting the votes. These states are Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina. 

Meanwhile, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's campaign has expressed confidence that he will win enough Electoral College votes to reach the needed 270 target tally.

Trump has led in the battleground areas earlier. It started to slip away with the count of absentee ballots.

Trump's campaign has argued over the counting of votes even after the election day, which some states allow.

Trump critics are now worried that the possible presence of federal agents might intimidate to exacerbate the election.

"The timing is quite curious, especially given earlier concerns about the politicization of the Justice Department to aid in any effort by the Trump campaign to try to contest the vote," Richard Hasen said in a Fox News report.

Hasen is an election law expert at the University of California Irvine School of Law.

Mail-in Ballots

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) data showed that over 150,000 ballots were caught in its processing facilities. These ballots were not delivered by Election Day.

It includes more than 12,000 ballots in five of the states that have yet to be counted for either Trump and Biden. 

Related story: How Many Are Left Uncounted? USPS Blows Court Deadline to Find Missing Ballots

In a court filing on Thursday, the agency also acknowledged that thousands of ballots had not been processed in time. It also admitted that more ballots were processed on Wednesday than on Election Day.

A Washington Post report said the mailed ballots that the USPS did not deliver by Election Day are expected to grow as more data will be released in the days ahead.

In several swing states, late ballots would still be counted as long as they were postmarked on Election Day and received by Friday.

USPS delivery failure highlights the risks in relying on the mail service to deliver ballots close to Election Day.

USPS process 94.5 percent of ballots on Wednesday on time, which is an improvement over recent days. However, this is below the 97 percent that postal and voting experts have forecasted.

USPS data also showed that swing-state voters are experiencing major mail delays in returning ballots on time.