Election Mail
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Daniel Bentley
Program Manager, Mailing Services
Election Mail
U.S. Postal Service
 Committed to working with Election Officials to
ensure smooth processing
– Continue partnership with state and local
Election Officials
 Ensure the needs of military and overseas voters
are met
State and local Election Officials
 Support State and Local Vote-by-Mail programs
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Agenda
Updates
Network Rationalization
Military/Overseas balloting materials
Rate Change – will there be a roll back?
Service Standards –will they be restored?
Washington State Mail Delivery
UOCAVA Address Format
Congressional Bills
NCOA Code 19
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Election Mail 2015 Updates
Network Rationalization
The current schedule posted on RIBBs illustrates that
all remaining 2015 postal consolidations are on hold
Planned Area Mail Processing (AMP) Consolidations
– Up to 82 facilities in 2015, the schedule and
details are available at: ribbs.usps.gov
– As with prior network rationalization efforts, the
Postal Service will work closely with customers
to mitigate potential issues associated with
transportation and logistical requirements.
– 240 Plants at completion
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Election Mail 2016 Updates
Military/Overseas balloting materials
 More military sites will have end to end piece
tracking for ballot returns
 For ballots going to troops, the military will be 100 %
up on PARS for COA impacted mail
 Delivery scans is an improvement opportunity
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Election Mail
Rate change – will there be a roll back?
 Where does this leave stamp customers?
According to the industry, regulators and an
analysis by Save the Post Office, the 49¢ stamp
will remain on sale until “sometime in April 2016.”
 But we don’t yet know what the price of a stamp
will go back to after that. Postal Service
spokeswoman Darlene Casey said Thursday that
“Any price changes — as always — will be
announced well in advance, in order to give our
customers time to prepare.” But she declined to
say how much less than 49 cents the new stamps
will cost.
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Election Mail
Restore Service Standards –
 The proposed amendment in the appropriations
bill would return the Postal Service to the interim
service standards that were effect from July 1,
2012 through January 4, 2015. In other words, it
would restore overnight delivery for local First
Class mail and eliminate the extra day that’s been
added to the rest of the mail.
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Election Mail
Restore Service Standards contd.
 Since 2012, service standards have been
changed twice. The first change went into effect
on July 1, 2012. These standards, which were
called the “interim” service standards because
they were stage one of a two-stage plan,
eliminated overnight delivery for about 20 percent
of First Class mail. The interim standards made
the first phase of the plant consolidations
possible. About 150 plants were closed in 2012
and 2013, and thousands of jobs were eliminated.
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Election Mail
Restore Service Standards contd.
 The second change implemented the final version
of the new service standards. It went into effect
on January. 5, 2015. All overnight delivery came
to an end, operations were modified in every plant
across the country, and the way was paved to
close the 82 plants on the phase-two list. For
various reasons, however, most of these 82
closings have been postponed until 2016.
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Election Mail
Washington State Mail Delivery
 Many of our counties are receiving few ballots on
Tuesdays, including Election Day. Yesterday, was
our Primary and a county with over 200,000 voters
only received 65 ballots on Election Day. The day
before they received 7,000. This is occurring in
many of our counties.
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Election Mail
UOCAVA Address Format
Congressional Bills
NCOA Code 19 definitions now (since 2013)
including not just temporarily away, but also
zip-4s that don’t code (for OH SOS office)
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Postal Recommendations
Work with your Local Election Mail Support Team

Find Postal Election Mail Experts – From Planning to preparing
an election mailing. US Postal Service Election Mail Coordinators
provide the assistance Election Officials need.
www.usps.com/electionmail

Learn where to drop off government and election mail. Find a
Business Mail Entry Unit:
https://ribbs.usps.gov/locators/find-bme.cfm

For assistance with mailpiece design, contact a Mailpiece Design
Analyst (MDA) by calling the MDA Support Center at 855-5936093 (hours of operation are Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–5 p.m. CT)
or by sending your request by e-mail to [email protected]. Also,
mailpiece design information is available online at
http://pe.usps.com/mpdesign/mpdfr_intro_all.asp
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Summary
U.S. Postal Service
 Committed to working with Election Officials
to ensure smooth processing
– Continue partnership with Election Officials
 Let’s grow Election Mail together
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Questions?
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Questions and additional comments, please contact:
[email protected]
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Appendix
2014 Review






Load Leveling
Post Office Box designation
Revised Mailing Standards for Balloting Material
Election Mail Checkbox
Postmarks on Returned Ballot Materials
Election Mail Preparation
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Appendix
Load Leveling
 USPS implemented Load Leveling in April
– Extended the delivery expectation to four days
for some Standard Mail® entered on Friday and
Saturday
– These changes enabled a more balanced
distribution of DSCF Standard Mail across
delivery days
– Standard Mail DSCF Load Leveling Final Rule
Published in the Federal Register April 10, 2014
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Appendix
Military/Overseas balloting materials
 “39 USC 3406/PAR AVION” indicia, and the banner
“No postage necessary in the U.S. mail – DMM
703.8.0”.
Post Office Box designation
 Having a visual indicator in the address that lets us
know it is a mailing address
– Election Officials can get a file of all USPS PO
Boxes that use street addressing
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Appendix
Preparation
Retrain Election Mail teams in each Area, District
Communicate to all employees
Implement standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Ongoing monitoring of inventories
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Appendix
USPS Election Official Resources
 2016 Election Mail Program Kit
– Purpose
To help you in the planning and preparation of election-related
mail, we developed the 2016 Election Mail Program Kit
The kit is part of our continued commitment to provide election
officials with the tools necessary to use the U.S. Mail™
Distribution to Election Officials on or before Q1 2016
Please feel free to contact
[email protected] for more information
 USPS.com
– Will be updated with latest information. Learn how to
prepare and create election mail step by step
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Appendix
Late Absentee Ballots
 Sweep Post Offices at 8:00 pm, then having trays of
ballots delivered next morning
– Mail does arrive after 8:00 pm for processing.
– Local post offices worked with local Election
Officials to coordinate facility sweeps and mail
pickup times
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Election Season 2014 Improvements
Revised Mailing Standards for Balloting Material Postage
 Effective October 7, 2013, the Postal Service revised
balloting mailing postage standards in the Domestic
Mail Manual (DMM®) 703.8. The rule requires that
election officials prominently mark the postage required
on all returned ballot materials
 This measure is to prevent election mail returns
– Some jurisdictions applied the required
information
– Other jurisdictions established Postage Due
Accounts
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Election Mail 2014 Improvements
Election Mail Checkbox


Effective January 26,
2014, USPS enabled an
Election Mail Checkbox in
PostalOne! and on Postage Statements 3602-R,
3602-N, 3600-PM, and
3600-FCM
The purpose of this
change is to provide
USPS with additional
visibility of all Official
Election Mail entered into
the mailstream
USPS Tracking


Approximately 130Million pieces from Implementation – November 5th
Approximately 78Million pieces from September 1 – November 5th
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Election Mail 2014 Improvements
Postmarks on Returned
Ballot Materials
In response to mailers’ and
municipal requests, the Postal
Service began applying a
cancellation mark to all letter
pieces processed on USPS Letter
Automation Compatible Postage
Cancellation Systems in March
2014
This change has a variety of uses,
including identifying the mailing
date of ballot materials, voter
registration cards, absentee
applications, polling notifications,
and tax filing submissions.
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Election Mail 2016 Updates
Military/Overseas balloting materials
 More military sites will have end to end piece
tracking for ballot returns
 For ballots going to troops, the military will be 100 %
up on PARS for COA impacted mail
 Delivery scans is an improvement opportunity
25
Postal Recommendations
Work with your Local Election Mail Support Team

Find Postal Election Mail Experts – From Planning to preparing
an election mailing. US Postal Service Election Mail Coordinators
provide the assistance Election Officials need.
www.usps.com/electionmail

Learn where to drop off government and election mail. Find a
Business Mail Entry Unit:
https://ribbs.usps.gov/locators/find-bme.cfm

For assistance with mailpiece design, contact a Mailpiece Design
Analyst (MDA) by calling the MDA Support Center at 855-5936093 (hours of operation are Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–5 p.m. CT)
or by sending your request by e-mail to [email protected]. Also,
mailpiece design information is available online at
http://pe.usps.com/mpdesign/mpdfr_intro_all.asp
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