postage to return ballot, WTF

[insertNameHere]

I have heard numerous people complaining that we need to show ID but feel it is unreasonable due to cost. What I can't figure out is why they need postage for me to return my absentee ballot. Is this not a federal election and the post office is a federal service. you would think they could use an envelope that allows me to vote without paying extra.

[crashhelmet]

But the Post Office is not a part of the Federal government. Aside from subsidies, they get no money from taxes. They have to charge postage to turn a profit.

[Aethian]

What subsidies?

[crashhelmet]

What subsidies?

They're indirect, I guess.

Aside form not having to pay any taxes or DMV-related fees of any kind, they're also exempt from antitrust laws, get power of eminent domain, and a few other perks.

The Federal Government also pays about 33% of the costs for their benefits and retirement packages.

[Aethian]

The Fed Government doesn't pay for ANY of our benefits or retirement packages. The USPS pays in a HUGE HUGE chunk of money to fund retirement and we pay a pretty penny for our insurance as well. Mine is just under 100 a paycheck and I'm under the single standard status. And the USPS does pay taxes and we do have a form of a DMV cost. All our vehicles that have plates pay for the government tags every year. Also the USPS provides it's own vehicle insurance.


I honestly don't understand antutrust laws or the power of eminent domain to comment on those.

[daleduke17]

So, requiring an ID to vote is a "poll tax" but requiring postage isn't?

What stupidity.

[protege]

I honestly don't understand antutrust laws or the power of eminent domain to comment on those.

Antitrust laws are supposed to prevent monopolies and preserve competition.

It's been argued that in some areas--small towns, for example--the USPS has a monopoly on service. My grandmother's town was like that for years. There were no FedEx or DHL boxes. Everything went through the post office. There's some of of those boxes now, but you'll pay more to use them.

[Aethian]

You'll pay more if you use FedEx and UPS anyways. They can charge more to make more of a profit. The USPS however was written in to not being able to make a profit one year unless it was ear marked for the next. It was also written by the government that we are to deliver to every address unless it was a address that was unable to get to by conventional means and then we were to offer a PO Box free of charge. It's not that we had a monopoly on service it's that those other companies didn't see a way to make money there until the population got to a certain point or unless it was promised so much would be made in that area.

[Andara Bledin]

So, requiring an ID to vote is a "poll tax" but requiring postage isn't?

Straw man. You aren't required to pay postage if you go to the polls.

^-.-^

[Aethian]

Also needing postage on the item depends on your area. With one of the local areas they pay for return postage, also if your over a certain age they will pay for the larger voting situations as well. But they also have that worked into their budgets with the property tax.

It takes a cost to run those sometimes, quite over sized, envelopes through the machines. Several times I have seen them supposed to be knocked up to the flat letter size and yet we're still taking and sending them through with a first class stamp. Where sending the item to where it's supposed to go...we're taking a loss on it. But because of the rules we have to follow from the government, we have to do it.

Also the political mail is processed like it's priority mail but yet it's sent through at between 8-12 cents. A HUGE loss to the USPS and quite a bit of work for myself and my coworkers. With several of them coming in a random order, backwards, or lots of times to a certain person. Every one of them has to be dealt with by hand and can't just be sent through a machine to be put into order. And yet...they don't have to pay for that work cause of the rules we have to follow.

Honestly, some of these rules we have to follow from the days gone by hurt us more then the lessening of physical mail. Which at times it's heavier then I've seen it since I hired in as a letter carrier.

[radiocerk]

My state has universal mail-in ballots, but you can drop them off at the public library instead of mailing them and then you don't need postage.

[daleduke17]

Straw man. You aren't required to pay postage if you go to the polls.

^-.-^

And you aren't required to pay for IDs in many states, either.

Valid argument.

[BlaqueKatt]

And you aren't required to pay for IDs in many states, either.

Valid argument.

nope strawman, because you still have to PAY for the required documents to receive a "free ID"

A valid argument would be if they required all ballots be mailed in, and charged for the ballot.

strawman-

Person 1 has position X.(voter id=poll tax)
Person 2 disregards certain key points of X and instead presents the superficially similar position Y. The position Y is a distorted version of X (requiring postage )
Person 2 attacks position Y, concluding that X is false/incorrect/flawed.

[daleduke17]

And you still have to pay postage to mail in your ballot since that is the way the OP is deciding to vote.

Doesn't voting require no fees at all under any circumstances?

[bainsidhe]

Doesn't voting require no fees at all under any circumstances?

With that argument, shouldn't the Mobil station give me free gas to and from the voting booth? What about depreciation on my vehicle?