U.S. Postal Service disregards court order to look for ballots in Wisconsin and other swing states
The U.S. Postal Service disregarded a federal judge's order Tuesday to sweep mail processing facilities serving 15 states, including Wisconsin.
The agency said late Tuesday it would instead stick to its own inspection schedule.
"Defendants have been working to comply with this Court's Order, which requires a 'sweep' of postal facilities within several specified districts, while recognizing the limitations caused by time and the Postal Service's pre-existing Postal Inspection processes," the Postal Service response read. "As of the time of this filing, that process remains ongoing."
The agency has disclosed that more than 300,000 ballots nationwide could not be traced.
Results:Statewide results, county breakdowns and more
More:Wisconsin election results likely won't be known before Wednesday
Live blog:Updates from around the state
Full coverage:Wisconsin election section
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, in Washington, D.C., had ordered officials from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Postal Service Office of Inspector General, an independent watchdog agency, to inspect mail processing facilities in a number of districts by Tuesday afternoon. Those districts include large areas of swing states that could be key to determining the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
According to the online docket summarizing Tuesday's court action, Sullivan understands "compliance" to mean that the inspectors will "identify and refer election mail in staging and non-staging areas to facility managers to resolve as expeditiously as possible. Given the timing, the Court is inclined to let this process continue."
The districts covered in the litigation include parts of a number of swing states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, New England, South Carolina, Florida, Arizona and New Mexico, The Washington Post reported.
Several lawsuits have been filed against the Postal Service regarding its handling of the balloting.
The case involved in the order issued Tuesday was filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"There have been widespread reports of mail piling up in regional distribution centers and post offices around the country, and of customers experiencing substantial delays and disruptions in mail service," the suit charged. "For example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, residents reportedly experienced delays of up to three weeks in receiving mail, leading to missed worker’s compensation checks and paychecks."
The order was also issued in a related suit filed against the postal service in August by several groups and individuals, which involves Aaron Carrel of Madison. That suit stated that Carrel lives with a relative who is immunocompromised, and that he intends "to vote by mail in the general election because voting in person would put his family member at risk of contracting COVID-19."
The Carrel lawsuit charged that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in millions more people voting by mail, saying, "the increased importance of voting by mail has been met with animosity from the federal government under the Trump Administration."
Other plaintiffs in the Carrel lawsuit include Washington, D.C.-based Vote Forward and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights
Spokespeople for the Postal Service could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Contact Mary Spicuzza at (414) 224-2324 or mary.spicuzza@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MSpicuzzaMJS.