On October 22, as Coloradans were still mailing in their ballots, Voces Unidas and other plaintiffs filed for an emergency order to enforce the original injunction against the U.S. Postal Service because we were concerned that the post office was still causing delays in election mail.
Last night, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District Court for the District of Columbia released a detailed order for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to communicate to all USPS workers that late and extra mail delivery trips must be approved to the maximum extent necessary in order to increase on-time mail deliveries. Judge Sullivan further instituted significant daily monitoring of the agency’s compliance to ensure that mail is being sorted and delivered multiple times a day -- particularly election mail.
Voces Unidas and other plaintiffs achieved an injunction in late September that stopped the post office from implementing cost cutting measures that were creating significant backlogs in mail delivery, specifically by limiting the ability of postal workers to make late or extra mail delivery trips in a day. The injunction requires that the post office and postal workers continue to process and deliver mail throughout the day.
While the post office claimed that they were continuing to process the mail effectively, Voces Unidas and other plaintiffs submitted data that demonstrated mail delays.
Mail-in voting is essential for working families to take part in our democracy and have their voices heard. Voces Unidas wants to make sure that all mail-in ballots that were mailed before October 26 are delivered on-time before November 3 by 7 p.m.
Click here to read more about our voter protection efforts.