United States Postal Service leadership received a sweeping set of orders from a federal judge on Tuesday, laying out ways the Postal Service must make sure ballots are delivered quickly because of the ongoing election and absentee voting deadlines.
One week ahead of Election Day, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the DC District Court told the Postal Service to inform its employees that late delivery trips are allowed and the delivery of ballots by state elections deadlines is important.
The order is some of the most aggressive oversight USPS has faced yet in its handling of election mail. It adds to several directives the Post Office has weathered in court in recent months, after state governments won injunctions that would prevent policy changes put in place by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that could have disrupted the quick delivery of mailed ballots to election officials.
Sullivan's order largely follows a proposed plan agreed upon by the USPS and by those suing the Postal Service, which includes the NAACP and the group Vote Forward.
States and other groups had sought for courts to monitor and enforce the injunctions they won, which Sullivan agreed to do in the USPS cases he oversees.
The Postal Service also must provide daily updates to the court on mail delivery data and will appear daily before the judge.
The Postal Service declined to comment on the order other than to say that delivering ballots remains its top priority.
CNN's Paul P. Murphy contributed to this report.