Postal Regs Raise Rate for County Sample Ballots

CREST HAVEN — Because the U.S. Postal Service changed its requirements to mail sample ballots, freeholders on July 14 approved an increase in the amount paid to Redmond BCMS, Inc. of Denville, which readies those ballots for the county.
The amount will increase to 12.1 cents per ballot. The previous cost per ballot was 9.2 cents, approved in March. At that time, the amount bid by Redmond was $38,640 to prepare and mail sample ballots for school, primary and general elections, and any other special elections.
In a July 1 letter by Tara Redmond McEntee, executive vice president, to County Clerk Rita Marie Fulginiti, she wrote, “Due to the fact that ballots are printed with respect to town/municipal borders (also district or ward borders within the town/municipality) and those borders do not always strictly conform to ZIP code borders, it has always been necessary to mail the ballots out at the non-profit ‘machinable’ rate of postage.
“We deliver them to the sectional facilities to take advantage of the additional DSCF entry discount. The postage rate paid in the past was an average of 11.2 cents and higher for ballots mailed outside of the SCF area.”
The postal service, however, recently changed its requirement for “machinable” mail preparation, and mandated that ballots meet certain fold requirements and be sealed with a wafer seal tab to qualify for the “machinable” rate.
Since those fold requirements have always been met, she wrote, “…It is now just the tabbing that has to be considered.”
If the firm did not adhere to the new requirements, each ballot would have cost 23.5 cents, which would have added $16,450 to the total contract.
Because that will mean an increase in the firm’s services, that cost had to be passed along, she wrote, although at a cost less than the rate, if the action were not taken.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com