Commissioner Ruth Y. Goldway 

Postal Regulatory Commission 

Statement before the House Administration Elections Subcommittee 

October 16, 2007 

 Chairwoman Lofgren, Ranking Member McCarthy, and members of the 

Subcommittee, I very much appreciate the opportunity to present my views at 

today’s hearing. I commend your interest in advancing the voting rights of all 

U.S. citizens and for exploring options to encourage greater voter participation. 

The expanded use of “no excuse” absentee ballots and voting by mail promise to 

do both. 

 I have served as a Commissioner at the Postal Regulatory Commission for 

nine years. Although the Commission has no direct authority over voting by mail 

at this time, I am very familiar with how the mail stream works, how 700 million 

pieces of mail are delivered each day and how reliable our Postal Service is. I 

see enormous benefits to the public, to state and local election officials as they 

make greater use of the mail. And I see benefits for the Postal Service as it 

works to maintain its vital role in the nation’s economy and social life. I wish to 

state that my comments reflect my personal views, not those of the Commission. 

 Like the Subcommittee’s Chair and Ranking Member, I too am from 

California where over 40 percent of the votes were cast by mail in the last 

election. Since the introduction of voter-choice permanent absentee registration 

in 2002, the absentee ballot has been used by ever greater numbers of voters in 

our state. The percentage of absentee ballots within the total vote has increased 

from 27 in 2002 to over 41 in 2006. The Western states had the highest 

reported use of absentee ballots and voting by mail. According to the federal 

Election Assistance Commission’s 2004 Election Day Survey Report, this is due to 

“the popularity of absentee voting within states in the region and laws that 

promote absentee voting.” In states that are growing quickly, have wide open 

spaces, multiple languages and complex initiatives on the ballots, the opportunity 

to read a ballot slowly in the privacy of one’s home and drop it in the mail is 

appreciated and encouraged. I note with pride that California’s Secretary of 

State Debra Bowen and my own State Assembly Representative Ted Lui have 

been supporting additional legislation to encourage paper ballots and voting by 

mail. 

 Among the issues discussed today will be legislative initiatives authored by 

Representative Susan Davis, another Californian and a member of your 

Subcommittee. I applaud her efforts, which would expand the availability and 

use of absentee ballots in the United States and encourage expanded vote by 

mail. During the 2000 and 2002 presidential elections, absentee ballots 
accounted for an estimated 16 percent of the votes counted nationwide, 

however, there was a great disparity between those states allowing “no excuse” 

absentee voting and those limiting such an opportunity. Only 23 states currently 

allow for “no excuse” absentee ballots and many of those require requests for 

absentee ballots at each election that may limit citizens’ use of them. 

 Offering citizens the option of voting by mail provides significant 

advantages, including the potential to increase voter turnout for national, state, 

and local elections. Voters would not need to take time off from work, find 

transportation, locate the right polling station, get babysitters, or rush through 

critical, yet sometimes complicated ballot initiatives. As the former mayor of 

Santa Monica, California, I know the importance of these initiatives and the 

desirability of having an informed electorate. I believe voting by mail will 

encourage greater voter participation at the federal, state and local level and 

promote more thoughtful review of these ballot initiatives that often require 

closer examination than is possible in a voting booth. 

 I advocate voting by mail because the mail provides a secure way for 

citizens to cast their ballots. Given the widespread, continuing concern over 

voting machine security, it is good to know that mail ballots are tamper resistant. 

In fact, tampering or interfering with the U.S. Mail is a federal crime, and one of 

the nation’s oldest law enforcement agencies – the Postal Inspection Service – 

works closely with its counterparts at all levels of government to enforce the law. 

I am an advocate for the advantages of a verifiable and transparent paper trail. 

The Postal Service can provide a system of hard copy distribution and collection 

that many voters believe is the best way to protect their votes. 

 

 Public confidence in the accuracy of vote counting is at an all-time low. 

The Election Assistance Commission estimated that as many as 850,000 votes 

were not counted in the 2004 elections, and a recent report warned that 

electronic voting machines cannot be made secure. Fortunately, a remarkably 

sophisticated and effective technology exists for solving these problems, and it is 

“old-fashioned” mail. 

 In national polls, the Postal Service is rated the most trustworthy federal 

government institution. When I receive and send my ballot by mail, I am far 

more confident in the security and integrity of the process then were I to use 

electronic touch screen machines, particularly those without a paper trail. 

Further, the process reinforces for those citizens who vote by mail the 

importance and value of the nation’s mail system. 

I’m pleased to report that the Postal Service is working increasingly with 

state and local election officials to promote its Official Election Mail program and 

to make that process simpler and more accountable. For the first time, at this 
year’s National Postal Forum, an important educational and trade show, the 

Postal Service held a workshop on preparing mail for elections. The Postal 

Service has recently designated Election Mail Representatives in field offices 

throughout the country to work with election officials. The Postal Service website 

now offers detailed information on mail design, rates, address correction and 

service standards under the heading “Elections Officials’ Mailing Resources.” It 

has developed an election mail logo for the exclusive use of election officials’ 

mailings that makes election mail easily identifiable as it moves through the mail 

processing system and alerts mail-handlers to more promptly move the mail to 

the voter or back to the appropriate local elections offices. 

Mailed-in paper ballots can and should be made even more secure and 

reliable. The Postal Service already uses barcode scanning to inexpensively track 

huge volumes of mail and packages from origin to destination. With minor, but 

careful modifications, this existing Intelligent Mail technology could be adapted 

for use with ballots, thereby allowing voters to check on the location and status 

of their vote by entering a tracking number by phone or over the Internet. This 

would also assist states and localities which may or may not be tracking 

absentee ballots now. The Postal Service has announced that by 2009 mailers 

seeking automation discounts will be required to use an Intelligent Mail barcode. 

The IM barcode will enable the tracking of virtually every piece that such mailers 

put into the mail stream everyday. Already in states that rely on vote by mail, 

trained and supervised election workers compare the signature on the envelope 

and on the registration card using a computer screen. Several private companies 

are offering ballot barcodes that compliment the Postal Service’s IM barcode for 

seamless tracking from printing to counting. 

 After the 2000 elections, the Postal Service developed an expedited 

national standard to handle oversees ballots for military and other U.S. 

government personnel called the APO/FPO Ballot Express. Similar procedures 

can and should be developed for local and state mail-in ballots as well. National 

standards regarding the counting of ballots based on postmark rather than 

arrival in the election office might be evaluated by Congress in consultation with 

the Postal Service, as might the idea of establishing the first-class stamp as the 

uniform ballot rate regardless of a ballot’s weight or size, or offering prepaid 

postage for mail ballots. The design of some ballots requires additional postage 

and, if voters have not put the extra postage on, some local post offices have 

been returning the ballots to the voters while some have agreed to send it on to 

election officials. The election officials may or may not be accepting the ballots 

and may or may not be paying the additional postage to the Postal Service. 

 The founders of our country conceived of a national postal service as a 

force to “bind our nation together.” Newer technologies may now be available to 

spread the news and help families stay in touch, but the U.S. Postal Service is 
the only federal agency that provides truly universal and reliable service to every 

residence six days a week. It should be called upon to meet the latest challenge 

to the integrity of our democracy resulting from the electorates’ distrust of 

electronic voting and their skepticism about the truthfulness of election 

outcomes. As a regulator of the Postal Service, I will do what I can to ensure 

that election mail becomes an important part of the mail stream and that service 

standards for the various classes of mail are consistent with the unique needs of 

election mail. As a citizen, I am here to support mail-in balloting as a secure and 

efficient alternative to in-person voting. 

Thank you, Chairwoman Lofgren, Ranking Member McCarthy, and 

members of the Subcommittee, for this opportunity to address you today. I will 

be happy to answer any questions you may have. 

 The Postal Regulatory Commission is an independent agency that has 

provided oversight of the U.S. Postal Service since its initial creation as the 

Postal Rate Commission by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970.