Federal judge orders USPS inspectors to make ‘sweeps’ in battleground states to ensure no ballots left behind

A federal judge on Tuesday, November 3, ordered the US Postal Service to dispatch inspectors to various processing facilities in a number of battleground states, including Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania -- to ensure that no mail-in ballot is left behind.

According to ABC News, Judge Emmet Sullivan said that the postal service must “sweep the facilities between 12:30 PM EST and 3:00 PM EST to ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery”. 

The inspectors have been asked to report back to the court by 4:30 PM EST to confirm “in the most efficient manner available” that sweeps were conducted and no ballots were left behind, Sullivan added. 

The matter is part of a lawsuit which was brought by the NAACP in August accusing the postal service and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy of disenfranchising voters of color by implementing cost-cutting measures that slowed down the mail service. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson said the US was witnessing, amid the struggle against coronavirus pandemic and systematic racism, an onslaught against the postal system that was affecting the voters of color. 

On Sunday, November 1, Sullivan ordered that the postal service must reinforce its “special procedures” to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day”. The service was also set to reinforce 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” through at least November 7. 

Last week, Sullivan ordered the postal service to take “extraordinary measures” at various processing points to ensure timely delivery of millions of ballots before Election Day arrived. Also last week, the postal service revealed that it had delivered 122 million blank and completed ballots ahead of the presidential election.