The U.S. Postal Service will continue taking “extraordinary measures” to ensure on-time delivery of mailed-in ballots under a recent settlement agreement between the agency and outside groups following protracted litigation.
The agreement ends a lawsuit brought by the NAACP and Public Citizen before the 2020 election, with the advocacy groups arguing USPS was not taking sufficient action to ensure timely delivery of election mail. The settlement, in addition to rulings that stemmed from a dozen other lawsuits the Postal Service faced before the election, led to an injunction on a series of actions management had instituted to cut costs and reform operations.
In the final stretch before the 2020 election, USPS committed a slew of additional resources specifically aimed at moving ballots, including increased overtime, additional trips, expediting election mail for delivery and new processes each day to flag the specially marked mail.