[EL] Oregon SoS Demands that Postal Service Stop Delivering Ballots with Insufficient Postage?

[Dan Meek]

I have since learned that several counties in Oregon have been refusing 
to accept ballots that arrive at their offices with postage due.

Dan Meek

	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	866-926-9646 fax



On 11/3/2012 10:46 AM, David A. Holtzman wrote:
Every chief elections official I've heard from about this
says that his or her office accepts and pays the postage for ballots 
mailed without postage.
That includes the City Clerk of Burbank, whose city elections are all 
vote-by-mail, like in Oregon.

In an all vote-by-mail election, wouldn't it actually be 
unconstitutional to not accept (or not deliver) ballots without postage,
because requiring paid postage would be tantamount to a poll tax?

   - dah
(in Los Angeles)



On 11/3/2012 9:34 AM, Dan Meek wrote:
> An interesting issue has arisen in Oregon.
>
> The press has obtained a letter, on United States Postal Service 
> (USPS) letterhead, dated October 31, and apparently written by the 
> Postmaster General, Patrick Donahoe, refusing the demand of the Oregon 
> Secretary of State that the USPS stop delivering Oregon ballots that 
> have insufficient postage.  See http://indparty.com/postmaster.pdf
>
> According to the letter, the Oregon Secretary of State's Director of 
> Elections told the Postmaster General that delivering these ballots to 
> the county clerks is unconstitutional.
>
> The Independent Party of Oregon has put out a press release denouncing 
> the Oregon Secretary of State's attempt to stop the delivery of these 
> ballots:
> http://hosted.comm100.com/Newsletter/Newsletter_EmailWebVersion.aspx?key=9XaAUo92EKHvMpx1q5Pxh%2bGn61DDXup84SI8DspfM%2baip1QlDN80JA%3d%3d&siteId=39553
>
> It notes the experience of Missoula County, MT, which has found there 
> that 0.75% of all mailed ballots have insufficient postage. See 
> http://helenair.com/news/state-and-regional/insufficient-postage-an-issue-with-many-montana-ballots-missoula-will/article_f59347b6-1f93-11e2-8d8a-001a4bcf887a.html
>
> Dan Meek
>
> 	503-293-9021 	dan at meek.net <mailto:dan at meek.net>	866-926-9646 fax
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Law-election mailing list
> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
> http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election



-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

Notice: This email (including any files transmitted with it) may be 
confidential, for use only by intended recipients.  If you are not an 
intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this email to 
an intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in 
error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying 
of this email is strictly prohibited.  If you have received this email 
in error, please immediately notify the sender and discard all copies.



_______________________________________________
Law-election mailing list
Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
http://department-lists.uci.edu/mailman/listinfo/law-election


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20121103/d98af1a0/attachment.html>