To the Editor,
I feel the need to share an awareness regarding the United States Postal Service.
If we are depending on a postmark as proof of a mailing date, we need to realize that our local post offices are not postmarking our outgoing mail. They get postmarked at a distribution center in a bigger city. Ours probably get marked in Minneapolis or St. Paul. The problem is that it may not get accepted or processed the same day we mail the letter. It could take three days or more to be received and postmarked.
What is a postmark? In the postal service’s eyes, it is a cancellation of the postage stamp as proof of payment for postage. The issue is that businesses and agencies use the postmark as the actual date of mailing (acceptance of the USPS taking possession of that particular piece of mail) and, as a matter of their particular policies, can subject you to late fees on a bill or even reject that mail altogether because it is past their required date.
Many postal sorting and stamping machines were decommissioned several years ago for reasons I won’t get into in this letter. The postmaster general has made many cuts to the system. This has made the post office inefficient, and the postage continues to rise – tacking on another .05 in July. The slowing down of mail delivery is nationwide. It causes delays in people receiving checks and medication through the mail, which can be problematic.
Please don’t take it out on your local workers. They didn’t do this. They will postmark a piece of mail if you need it dated. All you need to do is ask. Please keep this in mind if you mail in your ballots this year.
Bonnie Brink
Mabel, Minn.
Leave a Reply