Mike Causey

Voting By Mail: The Perfect Solution

Voting by mail is many people\'s idea of bringing democracy to the people, but Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says it works best when the mail ballots are act...

Federal News Network Staff

October 7, 2010 4:00 am

3 min read

Voting by mail is becoming more popular in more places.

The growing popularity of ballot-by-mail is one of the arguments against the proposal to drop one day of mail delivery to save the U.S. Postal Service money.

Voting by mail has many pluses. Also, sometimes, some minuses.

Members of the American Postal Workers Union, for obvious reason, elect their national officers via mail ballot. Most postal clerks, who sort the mail, belong to the union. Their union brothers with the National Association of Letter Carriers deliver the mail. And their track record, considering the massive daily mail volume, is very good.

Most of the time.

Unlike many unions where national leaders decide which presidential candidate the union will back, postal unions let their members make the choice. Again by mail ballot.

Normally the APWU election committee would be counting ballots this week, at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel downtown. But there has been a problem. So far only 39,071 ballots have been received which is only a small percentage of the union’s membership and a much lower total than in past elections.

So what happened to all those mail ballots?

You got it!

They seem to be lost in the mail.

According to the union a lot of members say they haven’t received their ballots. So…

They’ve extended the voting deadline to Oct. 14.

Members have until close of business today (5 p.m.) to request a duplicate or replacement ballot by telephone at 800-529-5218. Or, and this has gotta hurt, they can also contact the union via e-mail at: apwu@adr.org up until 11:59 p.m.

Duplicate ballots must be returned by 2 p.m. on October 14.

And, to anticipate what anybody may be thinking, if two ballots (the original and the duplicate) are received, only one – the duplicate – will be counted.

Managers Manager

Dr. Carolyn D. Bohlen is the winner of the Federal Managers Association’s Manager-of-the-Year award. She’s with the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago. Finalists for the award were Timothy Jacks, Norfolk Naval Shipyard; Tony Armentani, Defense Supply Center, Philadelphia; Brendan Cravalho, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Detres Stone, Warner-Robbins AFB, Georgia.

To reach me: mcausey@federalnewsradio.com

Nearly Useless Factoid
by Suzanne Kubota

(Dixie, put down the spoon.)

The odds a male does not groom his back hair are 1 in 1.33. The BookOfOdds points out “that’s 75% of men letting their back hair – if they’ve got it – become a tangled thicket of matted, curly, sweaty goodness.”

And with that thought, on to Friday!

ALSO ON FEDERAL NEWS RADIO
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Health premiums go up an average of 7.2 percent for feds in 2011. What do you need to know about changes in your benefits, deductibles, and copayments? David Snell, insurance expert for National Active and Retired Federal Employees spoke to Mike Causey about these issues.

GREENING OF GOVERNMENT SERIES
Tune in all this week for Federal News Radio’s special report, the Greening of Government. Today’s topic, people. We’ll examine how agencies are taking the greening of government to a personal level to meet President Obama’s sustainability goals.

And be sure to check out our stories from yesterday focusing on green federal buildings.