{"id":14210,"date":"2012-10-10T15:01:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T20:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=14210"},"modified":"2012-10-10T15:01:49","modified_gmt":"2012-10-10T20:01:49","slug":"making-votes-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2012\/10\/making-votes-count\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Votes Count"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/making-votes-count\/voter-logo\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-14211\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14211\" title=\"Voter Logo\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Voter-Logo-300x110.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"110\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Voter-Logo-300x110.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Voter-Logo.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>by Debra J. Mitchell \u2013 United States Postal Service<\/strong><\/em><em><br \/>\n<\/em><em><strong>Special to the Lehigh Acres \u00a0Gazette<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>With more than 25 million ballots expected to be mailed this election season, the Postal Service is encouraging voters to mail ballots early to help make sure they meet delivery deadlines set by election officials.<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Voters should mail ballots by Nov. 3, at least three days before the Nov. 6 general election. Ballots mailed to Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands and vice versa should be mailed by Nov. 1, at least five days prior to the election date.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Voters need to consider the time of day when dropping off ballots in a collection box to be sure the pick-up time for the particular box has not passed the suggested mailing deadline.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">USPS is offering the following tips for voters using mail ballots:<!--more--><\/span><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Visit state websites to determine election office locations and Vote-by-Mail rules.<\/li>\n<li>Check with the local election office for rules governing mail ballots.<\/li>\n<li>Place completed ballots inside their window envelopes correctly.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure proper postage and stamp placement on the upper right-hand corner of envelope.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Military Mail is given special attention during national elections.\u00a0 These ballots arrive from International Service Centers in Express Mail sacks. They will remain in the Express Mail stream until they arrive at delivery units.\u00a0 The federal government pays the Express Mail postage for these ballots.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Americans overseas, including military personnel, should plan on mailing ballots according to the mailing schedule at the\u00a0<a title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usps.com\/gov-services\/gov-services.htm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #0000ee;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>Government Service Web page<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<em>usps.com<\/em>. \u00a0Mailing information also is available at the local Army Post Office\/Fleet Post Office (APO\/FPO) and American embassy for deadlines specific to overseas locations.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Mail is an increasingly important part of U.S. elections.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">All American voters living overseas, whether civilian or military, have the opportunity to mail their completed ballots back home free of charge using the APO\/FPO or by hand-delivering their ballots to the nearest American embassy or consulate.<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times, serif; font-size: small;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times, serif; font-size: small;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hostmaxusa.com:2095\/3rdparty\/squirrelmail\/src\/download.php?absolute_dl=true&amp;passed_id=2146&amp;mailbox=INBOX&amp;ent_id=8\" alt=\"\" \/><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><strong>Mr. Zip\u2019s Tip:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">What is Franked Mail? &#8211;\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\">Also referred to as Congressional Mail, Franked Mail is official mail sent by members and members-elect of Congress, the Vice-President and other authorized individuals.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Times, serif; font-size: small;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Debra J. Mitchell \u2013 United States Postal Service Special to the Lehigh Acres \u00a0Gazette With more than 25 million ballots expected to be mailed this election season, the Postal&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}