After conducting internal sweeps, the United States Postal Service (USPS) discovered over 2,000 more mail-in ballots for Pennsylvania and North Carolina on Thursday. D.C. Federal District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered twice-daily postal center sweeps after a reported 300,000 ballots were reported as undelivered.
Workers accrued about 40,000 mail-in ballots altogether by Thursday – 150,000 were discovered Wednesday. Postal leaders confirmed that more mail-in ballots were processed on Wednesday than on Election Day.
Workers discovered nearly 1,700 ballots for Pennsylvania, and about 500 for North Carolina. Friday’s final sweeps trickled in a handful more mail-in ballots.
A week before the election, election experts warned voters to cease sending in mail-in ballots due to USPS delays. In September, the USPS sent out a recommendation to mail ballots at least one week prior to Election Day.
It appears that a collective surge of voters mailing their ballots in last-minute caused the delay.
Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA-16), state Representative Joseph Hamm (R-Lycoming County), and four other plaintiffs sued Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. During an address just before Halloween, Boockvar said they’d “cure” rejected mail-in ballots with provisional ballots.
The Republican plaintiffs argued that voters with rejected mail-in ballots shouldn’t have received provisional ballots on Election Day. A judge denied much of the suit on Friday. However, the judge ruled that officials must set aside provisional ballots submitted by voters who requested mail-in ballots.
Further issues arose with allegations of election staff taking a day off when there were about 35,000 ballots left to count. However, it was clarified that no breaks occurred – staff couldn’t count those ballots for reasons including a court order, “sufficiency issues,” or improper scanning.
Pennsylvania may count mail-in ballots received by Friday if postmarked by Election Day. North Carolina also requires mail-in ballots to be postmarked by Election Day, but will accept them until November 12.
For more election coverage, read our exclusive compilations from The Tennessee Star here.
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Corinne Murdock is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and the Star News Network. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to [email protected].
This was this biggest scam of voter fraud that anyone in there right mind could see. They had this rigged for Biden to win no matter at what cost. I think the American voters have a right to have every ballot counted. We wouldn’t be un this situation if everyone voted the right way. Doing it through the mail was Biden’s way of rigging crap. Trump had it by a long shot! I pray to God that those crocked politicians get back what they deserve. How they lay there head down and sleep is beyond me..