Steve Hutkins on-line live blogging at Save the Post Office has been updating the progress of the “Lawsuits against DeJoy, USPS & Trump with relation to mail delays and election mail. This is the sweep ordered by the court for the USPS to perform to discover and report via the “sweep of facilities” how many ballots (were) are being delayed due to the USPS. The twitter link in the Afternoon Update has numerous comments on the delay by the USPS delaying the Sweep. In the Morning Update (below) there are multiple various commentary by news outlets. More to come. November 5, 2020 Afternoon Update: Judge Sullivan presided over another hearing today. One of the questions on the table was how many ballots may have been delivered late or are still in the system
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Steve Hutkins on-line live blogging at Save the Post Office has been updating the progress of the “Lawsuits against DeJoy, USPS & Trump with relation to mail delays and election mail. This is the sweep ordered by the court for the USPS to perform to discover and report via the “sweep of facilities” how many ballots (were) are being delayed due to the USPS. The twitter link in the Afternoon Update has numerous comments on the delay by the USPS delaying the Sweep. In the Morning Update (below) there are multiple various commentary by news outlets.
More to come.
November 5, 2020
Afternoon Update: Judge Sullivan presided over another hearing today. One of the questions on the table was how many ballots may have been delivered late or are still in the system and not delivered yet. The Postal Service shared some specific numbers, as reported in a great “live” twitter thread on the hearing by @USPostOffice911.
Looking a ballots without a destination scan, the Postal Service says that in the Central PA district, there are 1524 total, and of these USPS has confidence that 979 were expedited, while 545 require further investigation. In Greensboro, 3087 total, 1752 expedited, 1335 to investigate. In the Carolina district, 2404 total without destination scans, 1204 confidence they were expedited, 1200 to investigate. In Philadelphia, 2496 total, 1682 expedited, 814 to investigate. The Postal Service said that there is no evidence yet that the ballots in the “investigated” category were not delivered.
In a separate filing, the Postal Service provided a list of the number of ballots that were delivered Express in each district over the three days Nov. 1- Nov. 3. The total appears to be about 10,655.
The plaintiffs have presented two proposed orders, which Judge Sullivan appears to have ordered.
The first states: All USPS processing facilities that serve a state with an extended ballot receipt deadline shall, until that deadline passes, perform a morning ballot sweep (no later than 10 a.m., local time) and a mid-to-late afternoon ballot sweep that is timed to ensure that any identified local ballots can be delivered that day. Upon completing a sweep, each facility shall report to USPS Headquarters the total number of ballots identified and confirm that those ballots have been expedited for delivery to meet applicable extended state deadlines. Beginning on November 5, 2020, and until further order of the Court, Defendants shall promptly submit to Plaintiffs a single report with the total number of ballots identified through daily sweeps, with one exception: for facilities that are located in states whose ballot receipt deadline is that day, Defendants shall submit the results of those sweeps to Plaintiffs immediately following its receipt of the results of the second sweep at these facilities.
The Second proposed order states:
1. On November 5, 2020 and November 6, 2020, Defendants shall file before the Court the equivalent information presented in “Defendants’ Summary of Information Learned from Plant Managers” (ECF No. 78) for the following United States Postal Service (USPS) districts: Greensboro, Mid-Carolinas, Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Metropolitan.
2. Plant managers and district managers jointly overseeing USPS facilities in Greensboro, Mid-Carolinas, Central Pennsylvania, Western Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Metropolitan shall coordinate with all local county Boards of Elections in North Carolina or Pennsylvania (the “Local Board”) to deliver all ballots to the Local Board before 5:00 PM local time in North Carolina or Pennsylvania on November 6, 2020. Such arrangements shall include, at a minimum, the following:
a. USPS employees of each facility shall be directed to undertake a sweep of the facility on the morning and again on the afternoon of November 6 to identify any inbound ballots postmarked on or before November 3.
b. The afternoon sweep should be conducted at a time sufficient for the ballots to be delivered to the Local Board for receipt by 5:00 PM local time on November 6, 2020.
c. Plant managers and district managers may implement a hub-and-spoke plan for each county, to the extent that such plan would assist timely delivery of the ballots to the Local Board.
3. No later than 5:00 PM EST today, Defendants shall file before the Court details of the arrangements adopted pursuant to Paragraph 2 of this Order by each USPS district and, to the extent facilities within each USPS district adopt different plans, by each USPS facility.
Morning Update: The big news to come out of yesterday’s hearing in NAACP-Richardson-Vote-Forward was, of course, Judge Sullivan’s expression of displeasure with the Postal Service’s failure to follow his order of Nov. 3. It immediately made headlines like these:
- Politico: ‘Someone may have to pay a price’: Judge lashes Postal Service for defying ballot order
- Forbes: Judge Warns Postal Service Of ‘Price To Pay’ After It Downplays Defying Court Order To Search For Ballots
- Business Insider: Federal judge says he’ll force USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to show up in court and explain what happened to mail-in voting
- Bloomberg: Judge ‘Shocked’ at Postal Service, May Order Head to Testify
- Syracuse.com: Judge furious with Louis DeJoy after USPS refuses search for undelivered mail-in ballots
Most of yesterday’s hearing was considerably less dramatic than the headlines suggest. A lot of it was an in-the-weeds discussion about how the processing plants were handling ballots, conducting sweeps, etc. The hearing focused largely on the testimony of Kevin Bray, the USPS executive lead for mail processing in the 2020 elections. He also submitted a written declaration. Daniel Brubaker, a member of the Postal Service Inspection Service, submitted a declaration as well.
The Postal Service also filed a response to the court’s Nov. 3 order, which provides a narrative of the actions of the Postal Inspection Service on election day, the sweeps of processing plants that took place, and an explanation of why the Postal Service was not able to comply entirely with the court’s order. In addition, the Postal Service filed a summary of information learned from plant managers as required by the court’s order on Nov. 3.
For more about the hearing and where things stand, check out these articles:
- Government Executive: Here’s What Really Happened With Mail Ballots and USPS on Election Day
- Washington Post: USPS data shows thousands of mailed ballots missed Election Day deadlines
- Washington Post: USPS ballot problems unlikely to change outcomes in competitive states