The United States Postal Service will soon no longer be applying postmarks at the moment mail is dropped off. Soon, it will be applied when first run through the machine at the regional sorting center.
Why is this a big deal? Because it will be used to determine whether bills, rent, and mail-in ballots are considered late.
So start mailing in your ballots very early from now on. They’re trying to screw things over again.
Or, if you have the time and ability, bring them into a post office and hand them to someone at the desk so they get post marked when you drop them off.
Also, WRT ballots, again, if you have the time and ability, bring them directly to your local city hall.
I seldom see a postmark on mail at all now, and if there is it seldom tells you anything.
Huh? What do you mean? Please explain.
Dropboxes aren’t entirely safe either, especially if they’re not inside a protected and staffed building… people will occasionally set them on fire: Ballot drop boxes set on fire in Oregon, Washington sparking chaos
I should’ve been clearer, when I bring my ballot to city hall, I do it while they’re open so I can hand it directly to someone or, as they’ve done the past few elections, have me scan it right into the machine. If it’s ballots or checks*, they’re either being handed to someone or an indoor drop box/mailbox.
*At work, I’ve had checks stolen out of the mail and used to make new checks on two separate occasions with two separate accounts. So no more checks dropped in random mailboxes. They get handed directly to our carrier or brought inside a post office.
Just a side note, the place to drop your ballot off might or might not actually be “city hall”. Around here (Ohio), for instance, the appropriate place would be the county board of elections (which, since it’s run by the county, isn’t anywhere near any of the City Halls in the county). City Hall might have voting-day polling places (my polling place is in my suburb’s City Hall), and if there are ballot drop-boxes, there might be one there, but it’s not the final destination for the ballots.
Yeah, it varies a lot by state and sometimes by county. Ballot security, both in terms of a collection point and also what happens to it afterward, as in a chain of custody, will differ quite a bit from place to place. In some, there’s a lot of opportunity for malfeasance…
When I was growing up there was a tradition that the mail post office in Philly would stay open till midnight on March 15 to postmark tax returns. I wonder if it still is.
I read somewhere that it used to be March 15, but it has been April 15 for the very long time that I have been filing tax returns.
I just received a Christmas card from North Carolina. The stamp is not canceled. There’s no hint of a mark at all.
It’s not the first time that I’ve received a card from the U.S. which does not include any cancellation mark / postmark.
Not sure how that happens, but I wonder what the implications are for mailed items where the postmark date is important.
Of course, if the mailed item is received before the due date, then there’s no issue.
I was especially interested in the cancellation date as it seems that mail is taking longer to go across the pond. Also an issue for me when I vote, as I have to return the ballot via mail.