US judge blocks changes at Postal Service

A US judge on Thursday blocked the Postal Service from making controversial operational changes that states said could slow down the delivery of election mail.

US District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the US Postal Service (USPS) over changes to the service in July.

"The states have demonstrated that the defendants are involved in a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the postal service," Bastian said in a telephone hearing.

"They have also demonstrated that this attack on the postal service is likely to irreparably harm the states' ability to administer the 2020 general election."

Read more: USPS reforms: Is mail-in voting for the US election under siege?

The states had challenged the Postal Service's "leave behind'' policy, under which trucks have been leaving postal facilities on time regardless of whether there was more mail to load.

They also demanded that the USPS treat election mail as First Class mail, regardless of the paid postage and the replacement of sorting machines that had been removed and are needed to ensure the timely delivery of election mail.

After a national outcry, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy — a major donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party — had said he was suspending some changes like the removal of blue mailboxes in many cities and the decommissioning of mail processing machines. But other changes remained.

States including the election battlegrounds of Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada urged the court to block them.

dvv/sms (AP, Reuters)