US Postal Service fails to meet deadline for ballot sweep

Judge had ordered sweep due to concerns over 300,000 unaccounted mail-in ballots

Lorraine Crawford puts vote signs as the sun rises the Main Street Branch Library vote centre in Huntington Beach, California. AFP

A group of kids who support presidential candidate Joe Biden hold signs on the sidewalk in front of a polling place in Minneapolis, Minnesota. AFP

Supporters of US President Donald Trump rally in front of a poll station at Coral Gable Branch Public Library in Miami, Florida. AFP

Demonstrators marching for voting rights pass supporters of US President Donald Trump carrying Confederate flags in Graham, North Carolina, US. Reuters

A person watches a screen showing early voting results at Black Lives Matter Plaza on in Washington DC. AFP

A worker of the Miami-Dade County Elections Department carries U.S. Postal Service trays with mail-in ballots in them in Miami, Florida. Reuters

Electoral workers count ballots in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Reuters

Poll workers sort ballots at the Franklin County Board of Elections in Columbus, Ohio. Reuters

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden visits The Warehouse for teens by teens in Wilmington, Delaware. AFP

Steph Smith drops off her ballot for the US presidential election in Rollinsville, Colorado. AFP

Voters line up at the John F. Kennedy Library, a Miami-Dade County polling station, during the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Miami, Florida. Reuters

A supporter of U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden uses a megaphone near the White House during Election Day in Washington. Reuters

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden rallies supporters in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia. Getty Images

US President Donald Trump speaks as he visits his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. AFP

Children entertain themselves while their mother and grandmother vote at a polling location in Cleveland Ohio. EPA

Campaign workers applaud as President Donald Trump visits his campaign headquarters in Arlington. AFP

Police block the path of a truck carrying a live band on a closed street in Washington. Reuters

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Joe Biden supporters wave to pedestrians from a school bus in Houston, Texas. AFP

Voters fill out their ballots at the Lenox, Massachusetts, Town Hall. AP PHOTO

Denise Pumphrey shouts "first-time voter" at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville. AP Photo

A person dressed in a 'Vote' superhero costume holds a campaign sign for Joe Biden outside a polling location in Atlanta, Georgia. Bloomberg

Police officers detain a man as people gather to demonstrate at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. Reuters

The US Postal Service failed to meet the deadline for a sweep that was ordered for 300,000 mail-in ballots that were unaccounted for.

Emmet Sullivan, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, had decreed that the operation should begin before 3pm to “ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery”.

Mr Sullivan asked for an update on the undelivered ballots in 12 districts, including Florida, Detroit, Central Pennsylvania and Alabama, by 4.30pm but the US Postal Service did not meet it.

The order was issued after the Postal Service gave data to the court that showed about 300,000 ballots had not been scanned to confirm delivery, yet the service said they had been processed.

Those who searched the plants and processing ballots for the postal service were in a race against time because some states do not count ballots delivered after a certain time on election day.

Record numbers of US voters have chosen to mail in their ballots this year to avoid queues at polling stations during the pandemic.

Before election day, more than 100 million people cast early ballots either by mail or in person, said the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Some postal districts were reporting slow delivery times for days leading up to election day.That prompted Mr Sullivan to express concern over Central Pennsylvania, Detroit and Philadelphia, which were processing only 69, 78 and 79 per cent of ballots on time on Monday.

His last-minute ruling came after voting rights organisation Vote Forward filed a lawsuit to ensure all mail-in votes are counted.

"No one should be disenfranchised for something that is out of their control," Shankar Duraiswamy, a lawyer for Vote Forward, told the Los Angeles Times.

“It’s important that the Postal Service does everything in its power to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The Postal Service’s ability to handle the surge of mail-in ballots became a concern after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor, introduced policy changes that delayed mail nationwide this summer.