A federal decide on Wednesday threatened to name Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy to look earlier than him, expressing frustration with the Postal Serv
A federal decide on Wednesday threatened to name Postmaster Basic Louis DeJoy to look earlier than him, expressing frustration with the Postal Service’s gradual response in finishing up Election Day sweeps of postal amenities in search of undelivered ballots.
“The postmaster is both going need to be deposed or seem earlier than me,” mentioned Decide Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia, as he continued to observe the company’s efficiency delivering ballots, which may be counted for days after the election in lots of states.
“I’m not happy about this 11th-hour growth final evening. Somebody could have a worth to pay for that.”
On Tuesday, Decide Sullivan had ordered inspectors to comb amenities in 12 districts after the Postal Service mentioned in court docket that some 300,000 ballots it had acquired had not been scanned for supply. He mentioned he was notably involved about poll supply in key swing districts with low on-time supply scores, together with Central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Detroit.
The decide gave the company till three p.m. to finish the sweeps, however the Postal Service mentioned it will want till eight p.m. to do the work with out disrupting the processing of a flood of Election Day ballots.
On Wednesday morning, the Postal Service it had accomplished the sweeps, and that they turned up solely a “relative handful of ballots” — about 12 or 13, in line with a U.S. Division of Justice lawyer Joseph Borson, who’s representing the Postal Service.
The decide’s dramatic Election Day order got here as file numbers of Individuals forged ballots by mail this 12 months, with voters had been anxious to keep away from crowds on the polls throughout the pandemic — and on the finish of a marketing campaign season marked by fears that Postal Service adjustments and cutbacks underneath Mr. DeJoy, a Trump appointee, had triggered intensive mail delays that might imperil ballots.
“Why was it as of yesterday there have been nonetheless ballots being delivered late?” Shankar Duraiswamy, the lead lawyer for the nonprofit coalition Vote Ahead, which is suing the Postal Service to strive to make sure all ballots are delivered, requested throughout Wednesday’s listening to.
He mentioned the court docket should now concentrate on getting ballots to the 21 states within the nation that settle for ballots postmarked by or earlier than Election Day within the days after the election.
“We’re very centered on the subsequent set of deadlines,” he mentioned.
Mr. Duraiswamy additionally requested the Postal Service to research a report he mentioned he’d acquired about “packing containers of ballots” sitting delayed in Greensboro, N.C.
Roughly 300,000 ballots that the Postal Service says it processed confirmed no scan confirming their supply to ballot-counting websites, in line with information filed not too long ago in federal court docket in Washington, D.C., leaving voter-rights advocates involved.
Postal officers mentioned that simply because a poll by no means acquired a closing scan earlier than going out for supply, it didn’t imply that it wasn’t delivered. A machine scanning ballots for closing processing can typically miss ballots which are caught collectively or have smudged bar codes. And hand-sorted ballots usually don’t obtain a closing scan earlier than supply.
The Postal Service has additionally licensed expedited supply of ballots that forego the traditional course of, however voting-rights advocates apprehensive that and not using a scan verifying that the ballots went out for supply, some may very well be sitting uncounted at numerous postal amenities across the nation.
The Postal Service mentioned Wednesday morning mentioned the company had been conducting each day searches in any respect of its amenities for ballots which may fall by the cracks.
In a press release, a Postal Service spokesman, David A. Partenheimer, contested claims about unaccounted ballots. He wrote that some ballots, expedited to election officers, had bypassed sure processing operations and didn’t obtain a closing scan.
“The idea that there are unaccounted ballots inside the Postal Service community is inaccurate,” he mentioned in a press release, reiterating the Postal Service’s dedication to “extraordinary measures” for poll supply. “We stay in shut contact with state and native boards of elections and we don’t at present have any open points.”