USPS fails critical election duty; makes excuses for not completing sweep for delayed ballots

Failure to deliver all mail-in ballots, from voters on Election Day, is a gross systemic failure, which is precisely what happened. Fatal as it might be to democracy, as per new data there appeared to be a failure to deliver all mail-in ballots. On top of that, President Trump has bluntly attacked mail voting as fraudulent throughout his election campaign. Now that's not a sign of a healthy fair election?

The numbers that don't match

As per USPS data taken as of Sunday, about 300,000 ballots received for mail processing did not have scans confirming their delivery to election authorities. While lack of scan per se is not a problem for the delivery of ballots but it could cause mail delays that could cause some of those votes to be disqualified.

What happened?

U.S District Judge Emmet G Sullivan of Washington had given until Tuesday afternoon to U.S Postal Service to search the 27 facilities across different centers for outstanding ballots and sending those votes immediately. Judge Sullivan's order on Sunday, commanded the postal service to reinforce its special procedures to ensure that "it delivers every ballot possible by the cut-off time on Election Day."

What the USPS says

The US Postal Service on Tuesday replied that it could not meet a federal judge's order to sweep 27 processing centers for undelivered mail-in ballots by the deadline assigned, because doing so, "would disrupt its Election Day operations."

Judge Emmet Sullivan reportedly was so angered by the USPS's inability to sweep its facilities for ballots that he spoke a tough language. He demanded answers under oath.

"I agree the Postmaster is either going to have to be deposed or testify before me under oath," the judge was quoted as saying.

The Postal Service on Wednesday said that it completed the court order and processed 300,000 ballots that had earlier not been delivered to election offices. But the clearly angry  District Judge Sulllivan during a hearing questioned as to why did the Postal Service not comply sufficiently with his order.

"Someone might have to pay the price for that," he said.  

Reactions, response and some ruckus

Many on social media didn't attach much significance to oath or testifying under it. "Testifying under oath? He will lie again. Hold him in contempt. Indict him. Send law enforcement to USPS," wrote a user. While some questioned as to why he wasn't being arrested for tampering with ballots.