KIMT NEWS 3.- The NAACP and U.S. Postal Service reached an agreement this weekend after a lawsuit was made against the USPS on changes it made impacting the delivery of mail-in ballots during the 2020 election.

The civil rights organization filed the lawsuit before the 2020 presidential election. The USPS is now saying it will use policies and practices during next year’s midterms similar to the measures used last year.

Post offices nationwide including the ones in Rochester will be impacted by the agreement. Under the agreement, USPS and NAACP will meet months before each national primary and general election through 2028. The USPS will provide weekly reports on service in the six weeks leading up to an election.

The agreement comes after postmaster Louis Dejoy’s administration was accused of slowing delivery, removing high-speed sorters from commission, and warning election officials that mail-in ballots will not be considered priority mail.

According to Wale Elegbede the president of NAACP’s Rochester branch, the civil rights organization sued the USPS to make sure everyone’s social justice rights are secure.

“Voting is a key part of that. Voting rights are really important and when you’re treading people’s right to vote, when your obstructing the mail system for people to prevent them for their right to vote, that is something that we had to take of.”

Elegebede is looking forward to what the agreement brings but believes more needs to be done for voting rights.

“I’m excited but we still have a lot of work to do. When we fight we win and we need to choose what we fight for,” Elegbede tells KIMT News 3. “Social justice are important things to fight for and its something we need everyone to join us for.”

George Schlitz thinks communication between the federal government agency and civil rights organization is key with the agreement.

“I think communication on any level is good. I think we need to have people talking and listening more to each other.”

The US Postal Service will be providing the NAACP weekly service scores for first class and standard mail six weeks before the 2022 and 2024 general elections and one week after them.

KIMT News 3 contacted the U.S Postal Service to find out what the agency had to say about the agreement. It did not return the station’s request for comment.