USPS warns Pennsylvania it can't deliver all mail ballots by the legal deadline

On Thursday, The Philadelphia Inquirerreported that the Postal Service is warning the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania it may be unable to deliver the required volume of mail-in ballots before the legal deadline of receipt.

"The warning came in a July 29 letter from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president for the Postal Service, to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, whose department oversees elections," reported Jonathan Lai and Ellie Rushing. "That letter was made public for the first time late Thursday in a filing the Pennsylvania Department of State submitted to the state Supreme Court, in which it asked the court to order that mail ballots be counted as long as they are received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election."

"If the court agrees, it will increase the likelihood that the results of the presidential race between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden won’t be known for days after the election," continued the report. "The post office’s letter to the state, which came as President Donald Trump has mounted false attacks on mail voting, warned that 'certain deadlines for requesting and casting mail-in ballots are incongruous with the Postal Service’s delivery standards.'"

Trump's appointment of GOP donor and former logistics executive Louis DeJoy as postmaster general has raised a number of alarms, as his tenure has already seen a number of policy changes and leadership shakeups that are reportedly slowing down mail service.

Already mail-in ballots are expected to be cast in far greater volume than usual this year, owing to the coronavirus pandemic.