The mailing of ballots by mail becomes a surprising (and unnecessary) cause of voter anxiety
The mailing of ballots by mail becomes a surprising (and unnecessary) cause of voter anxiety
At the absentee balloting parties organized by assistant professor Allison Rank and her political science students at the State University of New York in Oswego, young voters can take apple cider and eat donuts while they fill out their ballots. But the main draw is the free stamps.
"The stamp was really what worried me," a freshman told Rank after she explained the process of completing and mailing a ballot. According to Rank, only one store in the rural campus in the north of the country sells postage. It has a limited schedule and only requires cash, which many students do not carry.
It is not only students who may have a short stamp in this election. A growing number of Americans vote by mail at a time when fewer of us have a reason to keep postage on hand. But for a long time it has been an open secret among election officials: even though the return envelopes on many of the ballots sent by mail say "postage is required," the US Postal Service. UU Deliver even without seal.
"In those cases in which the postage due to absentee ballots or vote by mail has not been placed or is insufficient, the US Postal Service's policy will be the same. UU Postal Service spokesman Kim Frum said in an email to ProPublica. "The Postal Service is firm in our commitment to support democracy. "We will not deny a voter their right to vote by delaying a ballot sensitive to time due to insufficient postage."
However, someone has to pay for that stamp, which is why neither the Postal Service nor the election administrators publish the fact that their ballot will be delivered without it.
"It's absolutely the case that postage is required, it's just a question of whether the voter does not post enough, what happens then," said Tammy Patrick, senior adviser to the Democracy Fund's election program.
Some electoral jurisdictions pay in advance the postage to return the ballots. In those that do not, many elections offices have what is called a "surplus" account with the Postal Service. This means that if you forget a stamp or do not post enough for a multi-page ballot, the Postal Service will calculate the remaining amount owed and bill the polling place. If your local elections office does not have a surplus account, the instructions on your ballot should indicate how much postage is required to return the ballot, up to the penny. If you do not enter the correct amount, the Postal Service collects the tab.
Patrick said that if voters started leaving seals on their ballots sent by mail en masse, it could significantly increase the costs of election administration. "We know that there are tens of millions of voters who receive their ballots by mail," he said.
Multiply that by 50 cents for a first class stamp, or more for longer ballots that require two or three stamps, and charges for excess use could amount to millions of dollars per election.
Some argue that exercising the right to vote should not incur a cost in principle, even if it involves the relatively low price of one or two stamps. Maria Swanson, a voter in Pasco County, Florida, was "horrified" to see the words "postage stamp required" on her ballot. "My husband looked at me and said: Who cares about a stamp, but what happens if you are older or if you do not have stamps? How can the vote require a stamp?", He told ProPublica. life no charge associated with the vote. "
Whitney Quesenbery, co-director of the Center for Civic Design, a group that has worked with election officials in California to design voting materials by mail, said: "It would be wonderful if it were free shipping for all the ballots because that's part of the After all, you are not spending space in a polling place, you are reducing lines and keeping the election moving forward by voting by mail. "
In 2016, United States Representative Marc Veasey, a Texas Democrat, introduced a bill called Law of free voting of postage, which would give the Postal Service the funds to cover the postage for all the ballots sent by mail. Veasey compared the cost of stamps with a survey tax. "When I was a campaign worker, you knew people who wanted to vote but did not have money for the postage," the legislator said in an interview with McClatchy. "It happens more often than people think." The bill stalled in Congress.
If you are unsure of the postage required to return your ticket by mail, contact the local elections office. In some jurisdictions, you can also leave your ballot in a voting location in person or place it in a secure mailbox.
You still have time to receive your ballot by mail, but you'd better hurry. In some states, ballots sent by mail must be received before Election Day to be counted, while in others, ballots must be sent by mail or received on another specific date. Check with your local elections office to be sure.
You can resolve other concerns related to Election Day using our guide, The informed voter guide to make sure your vote counts.
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