The Postal Service is reminding employees to remember the differences between Election Mail, Ballot Mail and Political Mail — and the right tags to use for each.
Election Mail is any item mailed to or from authorized election officials that enables citizens to participate in the voting process. This includes ballots, sample ballots, voter registration cards, absentee ballot applications and polling place notifications.
The Official Election Mail logo can be applied to these pieces to help distinguish Election Mail from the millions of other mailpieces processed daily. The logo is the other major physical identifier used during election season.
Ballot Mail, a subset of Election Mail, is sent to or from authorized election officials and contains a ballot that may be used to cast a vote in an election.
Only Ballot Mail is permitted to use Green Tag 191, Domestic and International Ballots. No other form of Election Mail can use this tag.
Political Mail is any material mailed for campaign purposes by a registered political candidate, campaign committee or committee of a political party.
It also includes any material mailed by a political action committee (PAC), super PAC or other organization engaging in issue advocacy or voter mobilization.
Only Political Mail can use Red Tag 57, Political Campaign Mailing.
The tags should be affixed to containers of Ballot Mail and Political Mail to provide greater visibility as they enter Postal Service processing and distribution operations.
The green Ballot Mail and red Political Mail tags are available at Business Mail Entry Units. Green Tag 191 can also be ordered online.
More information can be found on the Election and Government Mail Services page on Blue and on PostalPro.
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