Court-ordered sweep of Pittsburgh postal service facilities turns up nearly 300 ballots

PITTSBURGH — Nearly 300 ballots were found as part of a federal court-ordered sweep of U.S. Postal Service facilities across several states that extended deadlines to take in ballots past Election Day.

According to a federal court filing, 160 ballots were found in the first sweep, and 137 were found in a second sweep for a total of 297. The filing said the ballots were hand-delivered to the Board of Elections.

Plant managers in the Carolinas and across Pennsylvania were ordered to check their facilities for any ballots that hadn’t yet been turned in and counted. No ballots were found in Erie. In Johnstown, 23 ballots were found and hand-delivered to each election board. In Philadelphia, 1,072 ballots were found across two sweeps of facilities there. In Harrisburg, 35 ballots were delivered along with another 266 in the Lehigh Valley.

These new numbers follow information reported by the Associated Press on Wednesday. Officials reported finding only 13 ballots only in Pennsylvania during an Election Day sweep of processing centers. A U.S. District Judge in Washington, D.C. gave the Postal Service until Tuesday afternoon to sweep 27 facilities for any outstanding ballots and immediately deliver them.

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