WASHINGTON — Ahead of the general election, there's no shortage of misinformation online about voting, and specifically voting by mail. That's why the Verify team works to get you the facts.
QUESTION:
Can you postmark a pre-paid absentee ballot envelope?
ANSWER:
Yes, the U.S. Postal Service will postmark a ballot if you ask them.
SOURCES:
The United States Postal Service and its mail processing handbook.
PROCESS:
In most states and voting jurisdictions, including D.C., Maryland and Virginia, mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, November 3rd, in order to be counted.
Back in August, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testified in front of Congress, saying that "prepaid postage does not get postmarked."
This caused some confusion for absentee voters who live in states that pre-pay postage for all ballots. Those jurisdictions include D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
So if those pre-paid envelopes don’t get a postmark, how can you make sure election officials know it was mailed in time?
The United States Postal Service mail processing handbook says a postmark shows the name, date, state, and Zip Code of the Post Office that accepted your mail. It also cancels the postage.
It goes on to say postal workers are required to make a local postmark available.
A USPS spokesperson told our researchers, “Leading up to elections, employees at delivery units are instructed on postmarking standard operating procedures, including postmarking ballots at retail counters if requested by a customer."
The spokesperson also said postmarking the prepaid ballot won’t change the mailing or sorting process.
So, we can verify, yes, the Post Office is required to postmark your prepaid postage return ballot envelope as long as you ask them to.
