USPS finds 62 ballots among 180,000 pieces of delayed mail at Miami-Dade post office
The U.S. Postal Service said in a court filing late Monday that around 180,000 delayed pieces of mail were discovered at a South Miami-Dade County post office where dozens of undelivered ballots were found Friday.
An additional 15 ballots were found Saturday and Sunday for a total of 62 ballots discovered at the Princeton Post Office near Homestead, the court filing said.
With Election Day one day away, postal employees were still sorting through mail at the Princeton facility Monday, according to the filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. No additional ballots had been found Monday.
On Tuesday around 9 a.m., the Postal Service reported that workers had finished searching all 180,000 pieces of delayed mail, and that 62 was the final tally of outstanding ballots.
The filing said all but one of the 62 ballots had been delivered, though it wasn’t clear how many had already been filled out by voters and how many had never even been delivered to voters.
After approximately 48 ballots were found Friday, officials said six of those had already been filled out and were brought to the Miami-Dade elections department, while the remainder hadn’t been sent to voters yet and were delivered to 24 people who hadn’t already voted.
(The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General said Saturday morning that 48 ballots had been found Friday; Monday’s court filing said the number was 47.)
“Postal Service employees are working to deliver this mail as quickly as possible,” said the court filing, which was entered shortly after 5 p.m. Monday.
Attorneys for USPS said one of the 62 discovered ballots was mailed to a house in a new development “that did not have a mail receptacle” and where no one was home. The ballot was returned to sender after multiple attempts to deliver it, the court filing said.
It wasn’t immediately clear Monday evening how much mail at the Princeton facility, if any, still needed to be sorted.
In a court filing Sunday, lawyers for the plaintiffs in the Washington, D.C., lawsuit against USPS said the agency had indicated Sunday afternoon that “all backlogged mail should be delivered” by close of business Monday.
The filing Monday by USPS didn’t specify whether that goal had been achieved, stating: “The Postal Service has committed additional staff to the facility to clear any backlog and to address any other concerns.”
During a 5:30 p.m. virtual hearing in Miami federal court Monday — in a separate lawsuit against USPS regarding the delivery of election mail — government attorneys told Judge Robert N. Scola Jr. they weren’t sure whether the delayed mail at the Princeton Post Office had all been sorted.
After the hearing, Scola ordered the Postal Service to provide the plaintiff, 1199SEIU, a report certifying “whether or not ballots remain in the backlogged mail at the Princeton Post Office.” USPS attorneys provided that report just before 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The attorneys also said Tuesday morning that “most” of the 180,000 pieces of backlogged mail had been delivered, and that the remaining pieces “were sent to the Miami plant for machine processing and should be delivered today.”
At a brief status conference in the case at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Scola seemed satisfied with the updates the Postal Service provided. He said the parties could request a hearing Tuesday afternoon if any issues come up during Election Day, but joked: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I never see you again on this case.”
Jonathan Manes, an attorney representing 1199SEIU, told the Herald Monday evening that the 180,000 pieces of backlogged mail was an “eye-popping” figure and “larger than many of us expected.”
The Washington, D.C., court filing said dozens of postal service workers descended on the Princeton post office to address the backlog that first came to light publicly Friday. Among the team working to sort and deliver mail from the facility were 23 regular mail carriers for the office, 18 additional carriers, and 35 other USPS employees and managers.
“Investigations were commenced promptly, and are ongoing,” the court filing said. “The Office of the [Inspector] General is investigating; Postal Inspectors are investigating; and management is investigating.”
Scott Pierce, the Special Agent in Charge for the USPS Inspector General’s Southern Area Field Office, told the Herald on Sunday that his team planned to sweep “several” other mail facilities in Miami-Dade County to search for undelivered ballots before Election Day, but he didn’t disclose how many facilities or which ones would be searched.
On Monday, Pierce said investigators had “not found anything major at this point” at other facilities.
Wanda Harris, the Miami area president of the American Postal Workers Union, told the Herald on Monday that USPS officials said four ballots had been found at the Homestead Main Post Office. Postal Service officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Postal Service also released a report Tuesday morning stating that all ballots have been processed at every retail and delivery postal facility in Florida’s 10 largest counties. A report on any outstanding ballots at USPS processing plants was expected to be released by 1 p.m. Tuesday, according to Manes, the attorney for 1199SEIU.
But Manes suggested the reports aren’t always reliable. The Princeton Post Office was reported as “all clear” for the weeks ending Oct. 23 and Oct. 31. Mark Travers, South Florida president for the National Association of Letter Carriers, told the Herald he first learned of the Princeton backup Oct. 21 and raised the matter in an Oct. 23 call with other Florida mail officials.
“The concern is, how reliable are those all-clears?” Manes said. The all-clear reports for the Princeton Post Office, he said, were “inaccurate to say the least.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 7:27 PM.
