What's the postage (for returning absentee ballots)?
County
This item originally appeared in: Bozeman Daily Chronicle <http://bozemandailychronicle.com>
Gallatin County taxpayers pick up the tab of between $5 and $35 a day for excess postage on heavy absentee ballots
Absentee ballots weighing more than what's covered by a 42 cent stamp are still making it to the county election office, Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Charlotte Mills said Wednesday, but county taxpayers are picking up the difference.
Mills said that since ballots began coming in May 5, her office has paid between $5 and $35 a day to the Post Office for ballots with insufficient postage. If voters mail in both the ballot they voted on and the ballot left unmarked, 59 cents is needed to mail the ballot, a 17 cent difference that adds up quickly with so many voters choosing to vote by mail this primary season.
Mills noted that while voters are given instruction on how to submit ballots left unmarked, they are not required to return that ballot - contrary to what was published in a previous Chronicle article. If only one party ballot is submitted, the postage cost becomes less, she said.
Still, one Bozeman resident said she got her ballot sent back to her, and she suspects it was because she put only one stamp on her envelop when two were needed, even though the envelope was not marked "insufficient postage."
"I'm pretty sure," Lori Lawson said. "That would have been the only reason it would have been returned to me."
Lawson is an adjunct professor at Montana State University and has been volunteering for the Barack Obama campaign. She said she was concerned that there were others like her in Bozeman who had tried to vote only to get their ballots sent back - a possible deterrent to voting.
"It frustrated me, personally, to get my ballot back," she said.
But Mills said "many are still making it to our office," despite the insufficient postage.
John Heilman, a Bozeman resident who said he submitted his ballot about 20 days ago, said he put one stamp on the envelope and has not had a problem.
"Nothing has ever come back," he said.
If voters are worried about their ballots not reaching the election office, they can call the office at 582-3060 to double check, Mills said.
Meanwhile, Lawson urged caution: "Put two stamps on it so you get it there for sure."
Absentee ballots weighing more than what's covered by a 42 cent stamp are still making it to the county election office, Gallatin County Clerk and Recorder Charlotte Mills said Wednesday, but county taxpayers are picking up the difference.
Mills said that since ballots began coming in May 5, her office has paid between $5 and $35 a day to the Post Office for ballots with insufficient postage. If voters mail in both the ballot they voted on and the ballot left unmarked, 59 cents is needed to mail the ballot, a 17 cent difference that adds up quickly with so many voters choosing to vote by mail this primary season.
Mills noted that while voters are given instruction on how to submit ballots left unmarked, they are not required to return that ballot - contrary to what was published in a previous Chronicle article. If only one party ballot is submitted, the postage cost becomes less, she said.
Still, one Bozeman resident said she got her ballot sent back to her, and she suspects it was because she put only one stamp on her envelop when two were needed, even though the envelope was not marked "insufficient postage."
"I'm pretty sure," Lori Lawson said. "That would have been the only reason it would have been returned to me."
Lawson is an adjunct professor at Montana State University and has been volunteering for the Barack Obama campaign. She said she was concerned that there were others like her in Bozeman who had tried to vote only to get their ballots sent back - a possible deterrent to voting.
"It frustrated me, personally, to get my ballot back," she said.
But Mills said "many are still making it to our office," despite the insufficient postage.
John Heilman, a Bozeman resident who said he submitted his ballot about 20 days ago, said he put one stamp on the envelope and has not had a problem.
"Nothing has ever come back," he said.
If voters are worried about their ballots not reaching the election office, they can call the office at 582-3060 to double check, Mills said.
Meanwhile, Lawson urged caution: "Put two stamps on it so you get it there for sure."
