Judge’s Order Throws The Postmaster’s Rules Out The Window

It a federal ruling Tuesday the United States Postal Service has been ordered to revoke rules recently put in place by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and carry out extra trips needed to ensure the delivery of election mail.

Judge Emmet Sullivan, who made the order, determined that the USPS must notify staff members that guidelines from July 14th no longer apply and that “personnel are instructed to perform late and extra trips to the maximum extent necessary” equal to or greater than the rate before those guidelines were issued, in order to increase timely mail delivery, especially related to the election.

“Defendants shall issue a one-page notice to, or deliver a Stand-Up Talk to, all USPS personnel who may have job responsibilities related in any way to late and extra trips,” Sullivan added, “stating that: ‘Late and extra trips will be approved to the maximum extent necessary to increase on-time mail deliveries, particularly for Election Mail.”

“Any prior communication that is inconsistent with this should be disregarded,” he added. “To be clear, late and extra trips will be approved to the same or greater degree than they were performed prior to July 2020 when doing so would increase on-time mail deliveries.'”

In addition to the ruling, Sullivan also ordered USPS to distribute information to staff concerning each state’s deadlines for accepting ballots so that they can guarantee timely delivery.

In order to make certain that the Postal Service carries out its duties, Sullivan is ordering that the USPS provide the court with regular updates that include the number of extra and late trips that were needed the previous day, any available election mail data, as well as the rate of on-time deliveries.

Following the order, USPS made a statement saying that between now and November its number one priority is the secure, timely delivery of the United States Election Mail and that it is “deploying extraordinary measures” including “expedited handling, extra deliveries, and special pickups” as it has done for elections in the past.