USPS OIG Promotes Vote by Mail

Tue, 09/01/2015 - 1:50pm

The Inspector General issued another report this month encouraging the Postal Service to “develop a strategy to increase voting by mail.” The report, titled “Election Mail Opportunities,” found that while many states allow voting by mail with no excuse, only 24% of eligible voters did so in the 2014 midterm elections. According to the OIG, the USPS could grow mail volume and revenue by $32 million in five years by encouraged vote by mail in the states that already offer “no excuse” absentee balloting – all while fulfilling its responsibility to bind the nation together.

The APWU wholeheartedly supports the expansion of voting by mail. As has been demonstrated in state after state, mail balloting is secure, cost effective, and increases voter participation in our democracy.

Twenty-seven states already allow voting by mail through no-excuse absentee voting, and they have found that voting by mail works. Three states (Oregon, Washington, and Colorado) conduct their elections entirely by mail. After adopting all-mail balloting for the 2014 elections, Colorado bucked the national trend of declining voter participation and substantially increased voter turnout. States with all-mail balloting routinely rank among the states with the highest rate of voter participation. When surveyed, 81 percent of Oregonians said they preferred voting by mail to traditional polling-place elections.

 

Earlier this month, Greater Seattle Area Local Vice President David Yao and Grassroots Coordinator Phil Warlick took the union's message to the National Conference of State Legislatures 2015 Summit and encouraged state legislators to expand vote by mail.

Click here for APWU’s 1-page issue sheet on the many benefits of vote by mail.

 

To read the USPS OIG’s report on promoting vote by mail, please click here.