The Postal Service went through “extraordinary measures” to deliver mail-in ballots to voters and election boards on time in fall 2020. Now it’s agreed to continue with those practices for federal elections through at least 2028.
USPS on Friday reached a settlement with plaintiffs in a lawsuit that originally challenged the agency’s ability to deliver an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots for the 2020 presidential election.
Public Citizen, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and its Legal Defense Fund filed the lawsuit last year, which in particular took issue with USPS implementing “operational changes” ahead of the 2020 election.
Some of those changes, such as a push to reduce late and extra trucking trips between USPS processing plants and post offices, started under the tenure of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, while others, such as the removal of blue mailboxes and equipment at processing facilities, began before DeJoy took office.
The Postal Service, as part of the settlement, acknowledges that it “anticipates utilizing its long-standing policies and practices reflected in its written guidance concerning the November 2020 election in the next upcoming national election for 2022.”