Postal Service finds 1,700 ballots in sweep of Pennsylvania post offices

Postal inspectors found more than 1,700 ballots in sweeps of Pennsylvania post office facilities, according to a court filing by the agency Friday.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, ordered the U.S. Postal Service to make sweeps of postal sorting and delivery centers across the country and report its findings. More than 80,000 ballots were found, according to the filing.

In Pennsylvania, where President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are in a neck-and-neck race to secure the state’s 20 electoral votes, inspectors located as many as 1,715 ballots, which were then delivered to the appropriate election offices.

In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court has ruled that ballots received by Friday may be counted, but Republicans have filed a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the late ballots from being tallied, claiming the ruling usurped the power of the state legislature. Ballots received since Tuesday have been kept separate from those being counted until the high court makes a decision.

The order by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan came in a lawsuit by the NAACP, filed after changes to Postal Service leadership and operations stoked fear that ballots would be delayed in an election when millions of voters were expected to rely on the mail to vote. The agency warned Pennsylvania and other states this summer that it would not be able to meet election deadlines.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor, was appointed this year by the Postal Service’s board of governors. He instituted changes in the agency’s leadership structure and operations that emphasized efficiency over dependability.

Postal workers said that lead to delays as trucks left facilities in order to meet a schedule while mail was still being sorted. The Postal Service said other changes, such as blue collection boxes and automatic sorting equipment being removed, were part of the agency’s reallocation of resources planned before DeJoy was appointed.

In the face of criticism from members of Congress, DeJoy nonetheless pledged to halt changes that could affect delivery.