It's Election and Political Mail Season, and USPS Approves This Message

The Postal Service expects to handle a greater-than-usual volume of Election and Political mail during this political season. To make sure this mail is processed as efficiently as possible, USPS has issued an information kit for employees and the public in the July 26 Postal Bulletin.  The kit features information on:

• The definition of Election mail.
• Proper use of Tag 57 and Tag 191.
• Handling military ballots.
• Use of the Official Election Mail logo.
• Frequently asked questions.

Every employee is responsible for understanding and implementing regulations for identifying and processing election and campaign mailings. Doing so is vital to the nation — and it helps protect an important revenue stream for the Postal Service.

Additional resources are available at: Election 2012 on Blue.

To help field employees with other questions that may come up, a new email address — ElectionandPoliticalMail2012 — has been established in the USPS Outlook directory. Questions will be answered based on the topic addressed by a subject matter expert in the Election Mail program, Operations, Business Mail Acceptance, Government Relations, Corporate Communications, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, or other area as needed.

Political and Election mail fall under the corporate “Election Mail” initiative — part of the Delivering Results, Innovation, Value and Efficiency (DRIVE) program. For more information, go to the DRIVE website on Blue. (Note: the website is available only to readers using postal computers or BlackBerries).