A federal judge in New York ordered the U.S. Postal Service to prioritize all election mail so that each vote arrives in time to be counted.
After several people filed lawsuits against the Trump administration and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy over concerns that cuts at the Postal Service could affect the flow of absentee ballots, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero ruled on Monday that the Postal Service must ensure that election mail is delivered in a timely fashion. Marrero gave the plaintiffs and the Trump administration until noon on Friday to finalize plans that will ensure that the Postal Service can meet the requirements of the court’s findings.
“The right to vote is too vital a value in our democracy to be left in a state of suspense in the minds of voters weeks before a presidential election, raising doubts as to whether their votes will ultimately be counted,” Marrero wrote.
[Read: The facts about voting early, by mail or absentee]
DeJoy has attracted criticism because of cuts that he said are designed to help the cash-strapped Postal Service save money, including a ban on overtime and “extra trips” that prevented postal workers from finishing their deliveries if they were not completed by the end of their regular shifts. Marrero wrote in his opinion that he will issue a court order mandating that postal workers be eligible for overtime in late October and early November if the Postal Service fails to keep up with the flow of election mail.
Marrero argued that President Trump’s public doubts about vote by mail and DeJoy’s recent confirmation have generated “uncertainty as to who is in charge of policies.”
“Conflicting, vague, and ambivalent managerial signals could also sow substantial doubt about whether the USPS is up to the task, whether it possesses the institutional will power and commitment to its historical mission, and so to handle the exceptional burden associated with a profoundly critical task in our democratic system, that of collecting and delivering election mail a few weeks from now,” Marrero wrote.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to an increased demand for mail-in ballots as voters try to avoid crowded polling stations.
