The Postal Service wants employees to remember the differences between Election Mail, Ballot Mail and Political Mail.
Election Mail is any item mailed to or from authorized election officials that enables citizens to participate in the voting process.
Examples include ballots for domestic or international delivery, sample ballots, voter registration forms, absentee ballot applications and polling place notifications.
These pieces are eligible to carry the Postal Service’s official Election Mail logo.
Ballot Mail, a subset of Election Mail, is sent to or from an authorized election official and contains a ballot that may be used to cast a vote in an election.
Only Ballot Mail is permitted to use the Green Tag 191, Domestic and International Ballots, and the Ballot Mail service type identifiers, which can be found on the PostalPro website.
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 be identified using Red Tag 57, Political Campaign Mailing, and the Political Mail service type identifiers on PostalPro.
The Election and Government Mail Services Blue page has more information.
