What is Election Mail and its History in the US?

Posted on October 9, 2024 by mailomg in Memo 746 // 0 Comments

From the National Postal Museum: Chances are your mailbox fills during election time. What is all that mail about? How did the mail come to have a role in US elections?

Official election mail goes way back in U.S. history. There was election mail in the early republic if we consider the mail exchanged between election administrators. Take for instance a 1792 letter in the museum’s collection, which is discussed in the online exhibition. A clerk for the Parsonsfield town, York County, mailed the report on the local vote count to the Massachusetts secretary of state. Pictured above is a Civil War election cover, 1864.

This kind of official mail features in the exhibition, Voting by Mail: Civil War to Covid-19, on view at the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC, from August 24, 2024 to February 23, 2025, and in the online exhibition … (click to read more)

UPDATED: USPS July 2026 Rate Hike Release Notes

Issued May 29, 2026: On Sunday, June 28, 2026, the United States Postal Service will implement the following software change(s): PostalOne! System Release 64.0.0.0 Facility [...]
Changes to USPS Dimensional (DIM) Weight Calculation In July

Effective July 12, 2026, the U.S. Postal Service will implement updates to how dimensional (DIM) weight is calculated for competitive shipping services. These updates are [...]
Resumption Notices For International Service, Diplomatic Mail

The United States Postal Service resumed acceptance of mail destined to the following: Iraq, Israel, Russia and Venezuela. These service disruptions affected Priority Mail [...]
Data Quality Tools 2026 Catalog

Bad data makes it hard for businesses and organizations to get a clear picture of the information stored in their database. It can cause costly problems such as operational [...]
How To Replace Legacy Mailing Equipment

Mail processing equipment moves and alters envelopes and paper, including folding, inserting, sealing, and sorting. Each action causes wear and tear that eventually requires [...]
Tray Management System For First-Class Mail

Take control of your tray handling with an automated system that makes it easy to process large mailings. The MAPS PostalOne tray management system automatically captures the [...]
Expansion at Memphis and Tampa Regional Processing & Distribution Centers (RPDC)

Overview of ongoing RPDC warehouse expansion projects in Memphis and Tampa. To support the Postal Service’s network modernization plan in Tennessee and across the nation, [...]
USPS AMERICAN REVOLUTION STAMPS

USPS rededicates its Figures of the American Revolution stamps BOSTON — A special rededication of the Figures of the American Revolution stamps took place today at the 2026 [...]
PMG Eyes Fed Payments For Universal Service

WASHINGTON, DC — In his remarks to the Board of Governors in May, U.S. Postmaster General David Steiner suggested that the government pay to support universal mail [...]
PMG DECLARES CASH CRISIS; LOSES NARROW IN SECOND QUARTER

“It is a simple fact that we are in a cash crisis, and we are now taking serious and appropriate steps to conserve funds to operate.” — PMG Steiner [...]
USPS Announces Parcel Price Hikes In July

WASHINGTON DC — The USPS filed for additional rate changes to take effect for competitive products on July 12. The scope of the price changes proposed in this filing is [...]
Priority Mail Will Not Increase In July; DIM Divisor Will Change

WASHINGTON, DC — In its filing with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the USPS said it will not increase Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express rates in July. The [...]