Section I. Determining the Appropriate Class of Mail to Use

The class of mail you use to send your pieces depends on the following:

• What are you mailing (e g , ballots, newsletters, voter registration)?
• Does your mailpiece contain personal information?
• How are the mailpieces designed (e g , dimensions, weight, card vs envelope)?
• How quickly do you need the pieces delivered?
• How many pieces do you have?
• Do you want free forwarding and/or return (if pieces cannot be forwarded)?
• Will you require extra services (e g , Certified Mail service, which provides you with a mailing receipt and delivery status)?

The main classes of mail you will want to consider are First-Class Mail and USPS Marketing Mail Completed ballots mailed by voters are First-Class Mail, regardless of whether they are prepaid by election officials or mailed with a stamp affixed by the voter The only situation where completed domestic, non-military ballots are not First-Class Mail is when the voter opts instead to pay for a premium service like Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express

The Postal Service strongly recommends that election officials use First-Class Mail to mail ballots and other Election Mailpieces to voters Using First-Class Mail allows for faster and more efficient processing while maintaining high visibility as the Election Mailpiece moves through the mailstream when used with USPS visibility tools, like uniquely serialized Intelligent Mail barcodes (IMb) or Official Election Mail logo

While we continue to recommend the use of First-Class Mail, the Postal Service has long engaged in several practices to prioritize ballots that are entered as Marketing Mail, regardless of the paid class, when capacity permits and when mailpieces are identifiable as ballots by the Official Election Mail logo or other Postal Service visibility indicia.

The Postal Service will continue to process and deliver ballots expeditiously, as we have done in past elections, with the result being that ballots commonly receive delivery timeframes similar to First-Class Mail even when they are mailed as Marketing Mail.

The following table summarizes the important features of each class of mail.

 

Class of Mail	Speed of Service*	Free Forwarding and Return	Secure Destruction	Extra Services	Presort Discounts	Single Piece	IMb
First-Class Mail	1–5 days	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
USPS Marketing Mail	3–10 days	No	No	Only for Parcels	Yes	No	Yes
Nonprofit USPS Marketing Mail	3–10 days	No	No	Only for Parcels	Yes	No	Yes

*Actual delivery times may vary depending on mail entry origin and destination.