Thread by @FlyoverJoel

If you are reading about USPS "delivery scans" today, please understand that the USPS does not scan First Class letters (mail in ballots) like they do packages. The final scan on a piece of mail does not mean it was delivered, nor does a missing scan mean it wasn't delivered. 1/

What that data shows is a destination scan and here's how that works. In a simple world, letters and flats processed through two methods - on the big machines and not on the big machines. You know, you read all about those big machines this summer and fall as they are being /2

dismantled and such. When mail is processed on a big machine, it has origin and destination scans. The origin scan is the first time it is processed on the sorting machine and its barcode is scanned. The destination scan is the last time it is scanned on a big machine. This 3/

does not mean the mail was or was not delivered. Lets use Minnesota as an example. I mail my absentee ballot in Duluth, Minnesota. The mail carrier picks that ballot up and takes it to the local post office. From there, the ballot goes to a processing facility near Duluth 4/

and run through a big-ass sorting machine at which point it is scanned (origin scan) and sorted to go with a bunch of other mail on a truck headed to Eagan, Minnesota where the Twin Cities sorting facility is located. Election mail is usually segregated from gen pop and marked 5/

as such. Once it gets to the SCF (Sectional Sort Facility), it's then run through another big-ass machine where it gets its destination (not delivery) scan and sorted to the level which takes it to where absentee ballots to be delivered. This does, however, guarantee it was 6/

delivered. In the real world, absentee ballots in Duluth aren't sent to the Saint Paul, but the example works. So is it possible ballots didn't receive a destination scan but were delivered? Yes, if they were already segregated at the facility it's quite possible. Would that 7/

be the smartest thing to do during an election with the highest mail in voter turnout in history? Absolutely not--especially not with a court order to get those ballots delivered. All these words are to point out that just because something got a destination scan does not 8/

mean a guarantee it was delivered. It just means it was scanned at the last large processing plant it was routed to go to. 9/

Stupid typos This does NOT