The allegedly weakened ability of the USPS to handle all the pandemic mail-in ballots has been a concern for several months. All sorts of inquiries and legal challenges. Why did it take until today for a federal judge to order U.S. Postal Service inspectors to sweep postal facilities in six battleground states? The order couldn’t have come a week or two ago?

AP MCCLATCHY, 10:57 am Pacific: “The last-minute order on Tuesday by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., directs the law enforcement arm of the Postal Service to inspect facilities in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Houston, south Florida, Arizona and a few other locations between 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Eastern time.

“The order is part of one of several lawsuits against the Postal Service over [Louis DeJoy‘s] cost-cutting measures that slowed mail delivery this year and raised concerns that mail-in ballots would not be delivered on time. Recent data has shown that on-time mail delivery in some parts of the country has dropped to levels lower than in July, when millions of Americans went days, even weeks, without mail.

“The order focuses on postal districts that have struggled to deliver ballots on time in recent days. It also centers on states that will not count ballots received after election day.”