Mail-in voters have a lot running through their minds ahead of Tuesday's ballot-packed election. One thing they won't have to worry about is stamps.
United State Postal Service employees are obligated to accept all ballots whether or not they have sufficient stamps, if any stamps at all, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
"It's a little-known secret," U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Gus Ruiz told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We know how important this mail is and we want to get it where it belongs as soon as possible."
Before the confusion surrounding stamps even ramped up this election season, a handful of Bay Area counties tried to make the mail-in process a little less stressful.
Marin, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco and Sonoma counties shipped prepaid return envelopes to voters when ballots were delivered, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
On the other hand, folks living in the four other Bay Area counties are asked to chip in and attach stamps to their ballots as necessary. If voters forget, or decide they don't want to fork over a precious stamp knowing that their votes will still count no matter what, county election offices are required to foot the bill for any insufficiently-stamped ballots after the election, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Media reports indicate that county election offices try to remain hush-hush about this postal service policy in order to limit the amount of payback money they will be asked to cough up.
