Alaska absentee ballots should have two stamps, but one is OK, officials say

This 12 months’s Alaska common election absentee poll is a hefty doc, weighing in between 1.1 and 1.2 ounces.

If it had been an peculiar letter, that’s weighty sufficient to want two stamps. But when voters neglect, officers on the Alaska Division of Elections and the U.S. Postal Service say this 12 months’s absentee ballots will nonetheless be carried — and counted — with only one stamp.

“If a return poll is nonetheless entered into the mailstream with inadequate or unpaid postage, it’s the Postal Service’s coverage to not delay the supply of accomplished absentee balloting supplies, together with mail-in ballots,” stated James Boxrud, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service’s western area.

Tiffany Montemayor, public relations supervisor for the Alaska Division of Elections, pointed to USPS Publication 632, which states, “Shortpaid and unpaid absentee balloting supplies is not going to be returned to the voter for added postage. Postage is collected from the election workplace upon supply or at a later date. The Postal Service is not going to delay supply of balloting supplies with inadequate postage.”

The present value for one first-class stamp is 60 cents.

The primary absentee ballots for the Nov. 8 common election have already been despatched, and the design of the return envelope features a field for just one stamp, however wonderful print within the absentee poll directions says to connect 84 cents’ price of postage.

That dissonance led to involved posts on social media, some containing misguided data.

Montemayor stated there’s no statutory requirement {that a} poll have a certain quantity of postage to be counted. Ballots dropped off at a polling place or one of many regional elections workplaces don’t have to have postage, for instance.

“Ballots that meet statutory necessities are eligible to be counted. These necessities are: The voter is eligible to vote; (the poll) has a voter signature, one voter identifier, witness signature, is postmarked on or earlier than Nov 8, and arrives inside the statutory timeframe following the election (10 days if postmarked inside the US and 15 days if postmarked outdoors the US),” she stated.

Nineteen states prepay postage for his or her absentee ballots, in response to data saved by the Nationwide Convention of State Legislatures. 

Alaska isn’t one of many 19, and a proposal to alter that didn’t go the Alaska Legislature as a part of a broader election-reform invoice this 12 months.

Ballots within the June 11 particular by-mail major election for U.S. Home had been postage-paid, however that was as a result of federal regulation requires postage-paid envelopes for so-called UOCAVA voters — members of the army and Individuals dwelling abroad. They’re lined by the Uniformed and Abroad Residents Absentee Voting Act.

Within the June major, which was held on quick discover following the loss of life of Rep. Don Younger, there wasn’t time to arrange a system to find out who acquired free postage and who didn’t, so the Division of Elections gave it to everybody.

Within the November common election, when absentee voters request a poll, they examine a field indicating whether or not they’re a UOCAVA voter — and thus eligible at no cost postage — or not. Most Alaskans don’t examine that field and don’t obtain free postage.

The deadline to request an absentee poll by mail is Oct. 29. To request one, apply on-line or name the Division of Elections at 907-270-2700 or 877-375-6508.

The poll have to be delivered to an early or Election Day polling web site, put right into a dropbox at a regional elections workplace or be postmarked by Nov. 8. Ballots mailed from rural Alaska might take a number of days to succeed in Anchorage, the place most mail is postmarked. Ballots might also be hand-postmarked by a clerk in a postal workplace.

Clarification: The one poll dropboxes in Alaska are at regional elections workplaces, and this text has been up to date to make clear. The preliminary model of this text didn’t embody dropbox areas.

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