How To Register Absentee Ballot

Scott Van Derven, president of the Wisconsin Association of Letter Carriers (photo courtesy of Scott Van Derven). — Scott Van Derven, president of the Wisconsin Clan of Letter Carriers (photograph by Lee Matz, Milwaukee Independent).

Scott Van Derven, the president of the Wisconsin Clan of Alphabetic character Carriers, was disturbed by the news that the U.S. Supreme Court had ordered that absentee ballots must be postmarked by Apr vii to count in Wisconsin's spring election.

"I have a unique perspective — I know how postmarks work," Van Derven says.

"The Supreme Court adding that requirement — commencement of all, it's non in the state statute, and a lot of people had mailed their ballots already. And so many municipalities meter their mail, and they don't get a postmark. And so that would be a problem."

Metered mail, Van Derven explains, carries a mark indicating the possessor of the meter and the postage paid, and therefore, different stamped postal service, does not require an additional postmark.

"Stamped mail service runs through a cancelling machine and the date is applied — the purpose is more for cancelling stamps so they can't be reused, to protect the revenue of the Post Part," Van Derven explains.

While some Wisconsin municipalities send voters self-addressed, stamped envelopes for returning absentee ballots, larger cities, including Milwaukee, utilize a postage stamp meter.

"It's less labor-intensive, because you don't have someone applying all those stamps," says Van Derven. "And metered mail goes at a slightly lower rate — in that location's less processing for the postal service."

Van Derven is particularly concerned about the possibility that election officials volition not count absentee ballots that arrived on Apr eight and April 9 without a postmark.

Those ballots accept to have been mailed by Ballot Mean solar day, he says: "Yous don't drop information technology in the mailbox and it shows up the same day. That cannot happen."

Declaration of Scott Van Derven, president of the Wisconsin State Association of Letter Carriers, on U.S. Postal Service procedures as they relate to Wisconsin's April 7, 2020, election. — Scott Van Derven'south declaration on U.Southward. Postal Service procedures as they relate to Wisconsin'south April 7, 2020, ballot.

Van Derven has put all of this in a signed declaration, shared with the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

He is hoping his professional opinion volition help commissioners brand the right decision about counting all those absentee ballots that don't have a postmark.

Commissioners deadlocked on Friday on whether to count ballots that arrived by April 8 with no postmark, with Republicans arguing that some ballots could have been sent the same 24-hour interval.

In the long run, Van Derven also hopes that last Tuesday'southward election debacle in Wisconsin won't discourage people from voting absentee.

"I certainly still believe vote-past-mail is a perfectly viable and safe and effective way to vote," he says. "Unfortunately, with the irresolute of the rules two days earlier the election, it might put vote-by-mail in a calorie-free where people don't think it can work out. That's not true."

He points to other states, including Colorado and Oregon, where voting past mail is the norm.

"Information technology works perfectly," he says, "as long equally you have enough time and a system in place."

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