A judge told USPS to search mail for ballots by 3 p.m. on Election Day. USPS said no.

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The United States Postal Service failed to comply with a federal court order on Election Day to inspect mail service in some cities to make sure that all mailed ballots were delivered.

USPS said it couldn’t meet U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan’s deadline to send inspectors or designees between 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday to certain U.S. processing facilities to sweep for ballots and make sure remaining ones were sent out. A status update was due by 4:30 p.m. confirming the sweeps took place.

© Kathleen Gray, Detroit Free Press These are the envelopes that people will get for absentee ballots. The blue envelope is the outside envelope, the green envelope is the return envelope that voters send their ballots back to their local clerks and the third envelope is the secrecy envelope that holds the actual ballot. These are new envelopes this year and clerks are warning voters to make sure not to mistake the new envelope for junk mail.

Sullivan, based in Washington, D.C., ordered the sweep Tuesday morning after the agency said about 300,000 ballots that had arrived at its facilities had not been scanned as delivered.

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The order, would’ve interrupted Election Day processes at the facilities and wasn’t feasible for the small number of inspectors at a facility, according to a response filed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. 

A previously court-ordered certification was conducted at facilities by 10 a.m. Tuesday, however, the response stated. In addition, daily reviews have taken place at 220 facilities, and reviews are conducted from 4-8 p.m. on Election Day.  

More: Election updates: Battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania still up for grabs

Now the USPS faces a discussion Wednesday about its “apparent lack of compliance with the Court’s order,” according to an order filed by Sullivan later Tuesday. Sullivan acknowledged the efforts underway and said he was inclined to let them continue.

The facilities targeted were in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Detroit, Colorado/Wyoming, Atlanta, Houston, Alabama, Northern New England, Greater South Carolina, South Florida, Lakeland, and Arizona.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which includes the participation-focused group Vote Forward, have sought redress for reported mail delivery obstacles ahead of the election.

Similarly, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this summer joined a number of states in a federal lawsuit against the USPS after slowdowns in the mail service. 

The plaintiffs in this lawsuit, however, requested Sullivan step in Tuesday out of concern that USPS data showed 300,000 ballots were scanned into the processing system but not out at their destination.

More: USPS Service blows deadline to check for missing ballots. About 300,000 can’t be traced

The postal service began “all clear” sweeps to deliver election mail in January and intensified that closer to Election Day, said Elizabeth Najduch, USPS strategic communications specialist in an emailed statement.

“Over the past 14 months, total mail volume surpassed 4.5 billion mailpieces for Political Mail and Election Mail tracked, representing an increase of 114 percent compared to the 2016 election cycle,” she said. “Ballots will continue to be accepted and processed as they are presented to us and we will deliver them to their intended destination.”

Darcie Moran is a breaking news reporter and podcaster for the Detroit Free Press. She’s served as an investigative reporter and covered justice issues, crime, protests, wildfires and government affairs. Contact Moran: dmoran@freepress.com. Twitter: @darciegmoran. 

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A judge told USPS to search mail for ballots by 3 p.m. on Election Day. USPS said no.