PEDAL TO THE METAL

Judge Orders USPS to Use Express Mail to Deliver as Many Ballots as Possible Before Election Day

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told the USPS to use its “extraordinary measures” policy to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.”

As fears grow that President Donald Trump will attempt to claim victory tomorrow night if early returns from in-person voters seem to be tilting in his favor, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to pull out all the stops to get ballots counted as speedily as possible. In an order late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan told the USPS to use its “extraordinary measures” policy to ensure it “delivers every ballot possible by the cutoff time on Election Day.” Judge Sullivan said the USPS must use its Express Mail Network to speed up long-distance ballot delivery, and 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.” Trump has insisted that results should be known on Election Night, even though counting mailed ballots always takes much longer than that and states run their own election counts and verification.