Author: Karen Brinson Bell, Executive Director
The purpose of this numbered memo is to identify the different ways that a “postmark” may appear on an absentee ballot container-return envelope, to help guide the process of determining whether a civilian absentee ballot that is received after Election Day may be approved.1
Postmark Requirement
Under N.C.G.S. § 163-231(b)(2)b, civilian absentee ballots that arrive at the county board office after Election Day are timely, if:
[t]he ballots . . . are postmarked and that postmark is dated on or before the day of the statewide primary or general election or county bond election and are received by the county board of elections not later than three days after the election by 5 p.m.2
The postmark requirement for civilian ballots received after Election Day is in place to ensure that votes transmitted by mail were cast on or before Election Day. (There is no postmark requirement for military or overseas citizen ballots.3)
The United States Postal Service (USPS) utilizes different postmarks to signify the location and date the USPS accepted custody of a mailpiece, and to indicate that the postage on the mailpiece has been used. (Accordingly, applying a postmark is sometimes referred to as “cancelling” the postage on a mailpiece.4) However, USPS does not always affix a postmark to a ballot return envelope5 and sometimes postmarks are illegible. Nonetheless, under North Carolina law, a civilian absentee ballot that is received after Election Day and before the receipt deadline may be counted only if it contains a postmark and the county board can discern that the date on that postmark is Election Day or earlier.
For illustrative purposes, Attachment A contains images showing the various types of postmarks that USPS may affix to postage on an envelope. This material was provided by the USPS counsel’s office. Please take note of the following:
- All included postmark examples are valid. Every example, except for Item 12, is a machine-generated postmark, displaying in text the location and date of cancellation of postage. Item 12 shows a manually applied, or hand-stamped postmark.
Sometimes the postage on an envelope will include a date as well. That may also count as a valid postmark, but only in the examples of Items 4 and 7. In those examples, the postage is applied at a USPS retail counter and contains the date of receipt by USPS. So even if there is no separate machine-generated or hand-stamped postmark, the date appearing in one of these types of postage will still count as a valid postmark.
On the other hand, the postage in Items 3 and 5 is not applied at a USPS retail counter but is instead applied by a business or other postal consumer, often using a private postage meter. Accordingly, the date in the postage in Items 3 and 5 cannot be used, by itself, as a postmark. You would need to have a traditional hand-stamped or machine-generated postmark, as well, for the ballot to count. Because the examples in Items 3 and 5 have both the postage and the machine-generated postmark, they are examples of acceptable postmarks.
1 N.C.G.S. § 163-231(b)(2)b.
2 If the third day after Election Day is a holiday — as it is this year — the receipt deadline moves to the next business day, which is Monday, Nov. 14 this year. See N.C.G.S. § 103-5(a).
3 N.C.G.S. § 163-258.12(b). Military-overseas (or UOCAVA) ballots that are mailed must be received by 5 p.m. the day before county canvass. N.C.G.S. § 163-258.12(a).
4 See U.S. Postal Service, Handbook PO-408 — Area Mail Processing Guidelines, § 1-1.3 Postmarks, available at [link no longer active].
5 See U.S. Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Processing Readiness of Election and Political Mail During the 2020 General Elections Report Number 20-225-R20, 3:
. . . we found that ballots are not always being postmarked as required and it is a challenge for the Postal Service to ensure full compliance. Some ballots did not receive a postmark due to: (1) envelopes sticking together when processed on a machine; (2) manual mail processing; or (3) personnel unaware that all return ballots, even those in prepaid reply envelopes, need to receive a postmark.
[Download the PDF below for Attachment A (sample postage and postmarks).]
↓ Postmark Requirement for Mailed Civilian Absentee Ballots: Numbered Memo 2022-15 (PDF)