A federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday to immediately sweep processing facilities in multiple battleground states for any remaining mail-in ballots and to rush delivery as receipt deadlines near.
The state of play: U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan gave USPS inspectors until 3pm ET "to ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery."
- Inspectors are ordered to report to the court by 4:30pm “confirming, in the most efficient manner available, that sweeps were conducted and that no ballots were left behind,” Sullivan wrote.
- He ordered sweeps in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Wyoming, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arizona, New England, South Carolina and Florida.
- Several of those states require that mail-in ballots be received by the end of Tuesday.
Sullivan also ordered the USPS on Sunday to send reminders to managers that they must follow the “extraordinary measures” policy and use express mail to speed up ballot delivery ahead of Election Day.
Worth noting: President Trump has made mail-in ballots a focus throughout his re-election campaign, saying, without evidence, that mail voting can lead to fraud.
