Colorado settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Postal Service over flyers mailed to voters that Colorado’s secretary of state said contained misleading information.
Under the terms of the settlement, which was reached Thursday night, the Postal Service agreed to the following:
- USPS will do its best to remove the flyers that have not been delivered from the system
- USPS will seek input from the secretary of state to change information on its voting website, usps.com/voting, and allow the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the secretary of state to make proposals for changes to that information
- USPS will provide a list of items it is planning to issue as part of a USPS media campaign between Friday and Dec. 14 that will include advertising on television, radio and print publications. Colorado’s secretary of state and attorney general will have 48 hours to comment. The agreement also establishes a process for reaching an agreement on contested statements.
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser agreed to drop the lawsuit in exchange for the settlement.
“We are pleased that through open dialogue and communication with the state of Colorado we have resolved this matter, and look forward to working with the state and others across the country as we prepare for the election,” Floyd Wagoner, a postal service spokesman, said in an email to The Denver Post.
On Saturday, a federal judge barred the post office from sending fliers, which contained incorrect information about voting in Colorado, after Griswold filed a complaint.
Between 1.8 and 2.4 million postcards were delivered to Colorado residents last week before U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez issued his temporary restraining order. On Monday, Martinez upheld his restraining order, which had been scheduled for another hearing on Friday.
In his decision upholding the restraining order, Martinez wrote, “The imminent distribution of false and misleading voting information to over half a million Colorado households constitutes irreparable harm.”