Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News

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An August 2020 lawsuit filed by the NAACP against the United States Postal Service ended Friday when the two sides, with the help of the Justice Department, reached an agreement on how best to proceed with the delivery of mail-in ballots.

Under the agreement, the USPS will coordinate with election officials other stakeholders, including the NAACP, to ensure that all votes are counted.

“Consistent with the Postal Service’s steadfast commitment to fulfilling our vital role in the nation’s electoral process, we agreed to continue to prioritize monitoring and timely delivery of Election Mail for future elections.” Thomas J. Marshall, General Counsel and Executive Vice President at USPS, said in a statement.

Marshall  later added, “The Postal Service continues to believe that none of the Election Mail lawsuits were justified by the facts or supported by the applicable law. The Postal Service performed admirably in the 2020 General Election and would have done so regardless of the litigation. Nevertheless, we are pleased to resolve this case in a manner consistent with our longstanding policies and practices.”

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson heralded the agreement as a victory as it placed his organization in a de facto supervisory role over the USPS.

“No one, including the USPS, should ever stand in the way of our constitutional rights,” Johnson said in a statement. “With the NAACP’s ability to now monitor the performance of the USPS during national elections, we will ensure that the right to vote is protected for of all citizens, including those often suppressed. This is an unprecedented victory for civil rights.”

The terms of the agreement, which will be enforceable in court, were brokered with the help of the Justice Department.

““The right to vote and ability to access the ballot is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement. “The department is pleased we could facilitate a resolution that reflects the commitment of all of the parties to appropriately handling and prioritizing election mail.”

The NAACP had originally sued the postal office in the wake of changes enacted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, the man then-President Donald Trump chose to fix the finances of the struggling USPS.

When DeJoy laid out a 10-year plan to reduce overhead by cutting office hours and lengthening the amount of time a first-class package would take to be delivered, the NAACP filed suit alleging the new approach would stymie mail-in voting efforts.

“The litigation against the Postal Service during last year’s election season had a significant impact on the timely delivery of mailed ballots,” Allison Zieve, director of Public Citizen Litigation Group, said in the NAACP’s statement. “Through this settlement, we are putting in place mechanisms to ensure that the Postal Service has procedures to handle election mail, to avoid the need for similar lawsuits every two years.”

The text of the settlement, the full text of which can be found here, stipulates that neither side has admitted to liability or guilt or conceded that their opponent’s argument has merit.