The potential effectiveness of an order issued Sunday to stop the removal of United States Postal Service sorting machines is now in question.
Internal USPS planning documents obtained by CNN indicate nearly 95% of the mail sorting machines that had been set for removal during the last few months were already scheduled to be taken out of service by now.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that the USPS would not remove any more mail sorting machines until after the election.
Documents from June, obtained by CNN, show the USPS planned to remove 502 DBCS (Delivery Barcode Sorter) machines, or 13.2% of its total inventory by September 30. These machines make up the bulk of the USPS mail sort operation. They sort envelope mail, which would include ballots en route to voters. However, nearly 95%, or 475, of those were scheduled to be removed by the end of July according to documents.