Presidential Commission on Election Administration & the New Reality with the United States Post Office

Transcription

1 Presidential Commission on Election Administration & the New Reality with the United States Post Office NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE ELECTION DIRECTORS JULY 16 TH, 2016

2 PCEA Recommendations & USPS Expansion of Voting Opportunities USPS Communication USPS Ballot Tracking Data Collection A voter who requests a ballot by mail & successfully casts it should be one less voter at the polls

3 Communication & Consistency National Highlights of Issues/Best Practices Resources

4 2016: A year of collaboration ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 4

5 National Postal Forum 2016 Regional Focus Group ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES

6 Since January USPS officials, including the Deputy Post Master General on numerous occasions, have been engaging with election officials across the country to identify issues and propose solutions. ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 6

7 Delivering Democracy: The Critical Role of USPS in American Elections Webinar conducted for USPS on July 6 th that shared by over 980 Postal Service employees Tammy Patrick Bipartisan Policy Center Fellow Presentation July 18 th for Election Mail Specialists ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 7

8 New Reality 8 Every election has a story, and no one wants that story to be that ballots didn t get delivered and counted. Parallels between USPS & Elections abound: Large, disparate work force & challenges with continuity, Desire to modernize and automate, Economic/resource considerations. Result: Plant rationalization Delivery standard changes

9 9 The bottom line The Postal Service Our commitment Election Mail will be processed within our Delivery Standards

10 First-Class Mail: DMM Step 2: Class of Mail Personal, handwritten, or typed information 2-5 day delivery (50 United States) Free forwarding and return Sealed against inspection Standard Mail: DMM No personal, handwritten, or typed information 3-10 day delivery (Contiguous 48 United States) Forwarding/return require endorsement and a fee May be opened for postal inspection 10

11 Communication: With USPS USPS: Local Post Master Mail Design Analyst: MDA Support Center (855) or Regional Election Mail representatives found online:

12 Communication: With USPS What to advise them: Mailing dates & prospective volumes Election Dates Any changes you ve had (or are considering) regarding design, size, content, etc. Coordinate election night ballot pickup & facility sweep advise if you have colored envelopes or other visual indicators to look for (are you using Business Reply Mail?)

13 Official Election Material Mail Logo Use Automation compatibility is a challenge with some jurisdictions design choices as well as size/format of return envelopes.

14 Envelope Design Considerations Consider also the design of the back of your envelope. Formatting so that the voter s address and any barcodes you use internally are in the general where a delivery address would be can cause problems with the USPS orientation software (& send the ballot back to the voter )

15 This is right where a delivery address would be located ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES

16 16 Where the voter puts the stamps is also impactful!

17 Communication: Mail House/Vendor Ask about ballot tracking you may be mailing out with an IMB, but not getting the benefit. If you are still keying all the yellow move tags, ask about Address Change Service (ACS) & get that information electronically

18 UAA & ACS It is easy to see how important accurate lists are when mailing out official ballots. Elections can be frequent, not always allowing for time to manually key in UAA and update lists. This is where informing election officials of electronic data services like ACS can be incredibly helpful. ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 18

19 Insufficient addresses can be partially eliminated if you have OVR & a system prompt for unit # for known addresses

20 Incorporating these known common failures in trainings can also reduce issues later in the process.

21 Ballot Delivery to the Voter 21

22 Mailing Ballots at Standard Rate If you mail out your ballots at a standard mail rate, which is subject to inspection, be certain to include an example mailing for review. If you do not provide an example then an official balloting packet could be opened and a voter impacted. ALWAYS Use tag 191!!

23 Make it easy to know that these are ballots! 23

24 UOCAVA Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act Postage is paid for ballots sent to military and overseas voters via Congressional appropriation (39 USC 3406, DMM ): Proper procedures should be followed to process these ballots correctly. ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 24

25 SERVICE TYPE ID FOR BALLOTS 25

26 Informed delivery

27 Informed Delivery is a service that was first piloted in Northern Virginia and has now expanded to NYC for the second phase of the pilot. It allows the public to see what mail pieces have been scanned for delivery to them prior to ever getting to their mailbox. This will greatly enhance security of the ballot when a voter knows that it should be in their mailbox on a given day.

28 Ballot Return: What to tell voters? Unless you pay for the return of the ballot or you have an overage account your voter instructions need to advise the voter of the cost to mail back the ballot. An insert with the information is ok. REMEMBER: Rates DROPPED April 10 th

29 CONSISTENCY OF MESSAGE IS CRITICAL 29 2 Jurisdictions with exact same ballot material envelope recently were told 2 different costs for voters to return their ballots. One was 47 cents, the other 68: 47 Cents 68 Cents

30 30 Now the one that put 47 cents on their return envelopes is getting calls from voters that 1) they re being told when they mail them that they need additional postage and, even worse 2) some voters are getting their ballots back in the mail as insufficient funds Be sure to document the weighing and talk to your Post Master about the importance of this.

31 Ballot Return 31

32 32 Use of color in the envelope or in striping increases the visibility of the ballot in the mail stream

33 What to Look Out For ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 33

34 Business Reply Mail Remember that BRM can add time to the return of the ballots for the attribution to your account remember to put that into your voter instructions! If you sweep the processing plant/offices on Election Day, remember to ask about BRM! Even if the BRM is not fully processed, USPS directive is that they are to do a quick tally of the volume and turnover ballots to election officials.

35 BRM & Insufficient Postage Many election offices will use BRM and/or have accounts to cover insufficient postage. Official election mail should follow postal regulations and NEVER be sent back to the voter for insufficient postage that is someone s VOTE! ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 35

36 Denver uses voter instructions as privacy sleeve with a video tutorial shared via social media channels

37 Many return deadlines do not take into consideration the new delivery standards. Be certain your materials clearly advise the voter of mailing dates. USPS was advising: IN HAND DEADLINES & Options!! POSTMARK Mail 5 days prior Mail 2 days prior Recently came out with a uniform, national message

38 38 The Postal Service recommends that voters mail ballots one week before the due date to account for any unforeseen events or weather issues and to allow for timely receipt and processing by election officials

39 States with in-hand deadlines are looking to reduce the numbers that arrive late that cannot be counted. Looking to use of postmark. States using postmarks have issue with lack-of or illegible ones. Considering going back to in-hand or other alternatives. ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 39

40 DEADLINES & Options!! Voters need to be mindful when dropping ballots into blue boxes of pickup/collection times Do your voter instructions clearly explain return options?

41 DEADLINES & Options!! Voters can go into any USPS counter and ask that their ballot envelope be handcancelled (also referred to as a round-stamp ).

42 Ballot Return Considerations Postmarking/cancellation does not occur on Sundays so this may be the cause of the increased delivery on Wednesdays Review your statutory abilities as it relates to postmarking or lack there of: Use of the date the voter used in signing the affidavit? Use of IMb data or other data from USPS

43 Iowa Legislation 43

44 DEADLINES & Options!! Do voters have other options in returning their ballot?

45 Data Collection Don t wait until ED+1 (Wednesday) to discover if there are issues! Train staff to look for dates out of the delivery range & missing postmarks (if applicable) as they process the incoming ballot envelopes.

46 Data Collection: Chicago, IL Study

47 Resources 47

48 USPS 48 USPS has a dedicated website containing an election-mail tool kit for election officials as well as voters. It is updated for 2016 with current information:

49 Election Center Postal Task Force 49 Join the Postal Task Force so that you get pertinent information on election mail, delivery, and best practices Simply let Tim Mattice know that you are interested.

50 Election Center Web Page 50 Check the Election Center website periodically for the posting of important information from USPS:

51 Contingency Planning I would also recommend that you sign up for the Industry Alerts that will send you updates in the event of service outages.

52 Postal Customer Council (PCC) The PCC is an opportunity to get to know regional USPS management (which can come in handy). If you have staff dedicated to postal responsibilities this would be a good channel of communication for them.

53 Data Collection With a generous funding by the Democracy Fund, the Bipartisan Policy Center has partnered with Democracy Works to host an online repository of election mail issues and best practices.

54 ELECTIONMAIL.ORG Will capture basic information regarding the postal issue that you are experiencing and report it directly to USPS

55 ELECTIONMAIL.ORG Issues will be categorized so that we can isolate trends in problems and find solutions. Solutions will be posted. Individual reports will not.

56 ELECTIONMAIL.ORG UAA & Addressing: They are doing a study to the carrier level of CASS certified addresses being labeled as UAA by carriers. If you have examples please enter them in to flag those routes! (UAA can also mean: they use a PO Box, have a dog situation, etc.)

57 STATES WHICH HAVE USED ELECTIONMAIL.ORG 57

58 58

59 HEADER GOES HERE 59 Postal Bulletin (PB22437) Clearly defines services that you should be receiving at your local post office, have a copy handy in case you have issues!

60 HEADER GOES HERE 60 Checklist for voters who vote by mail Checklist for election administrators Checklist for state legislators Checklist for USPS ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES

61 For tens of millions of voters their mailbox is their ballot box ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 61

62 By working together we can be certain that their voices are heard! ELECTION AND POLITICAL MAIL WEBINAR SERIES 62

63 Tammy Patrick Democracy Project Fellow Bipartisan Policy Center 63