Blame the October moisture. But some Shasta County voters are paying an extra 21 cents in postage — this on top of the 49-cent stamp — to mail their absentee ballots. Voters who have mailed their ballot with 49-cent postage only, fear not. The ballots — no matter that they are slightly heavier than in the bone-dry summer — will get to the Shasta County Elections Office by Nov. 4. Cathy Darling Allen, county clerk and registrar of voters, said the U.S. Postal Service will still deliver, and her office is picking up the difference for any extra postage. “They already know about this issue,” she said of the postal service. “They understand that the purple and green ballots” are being dropped off “and they get them to us as fast as they can.” To date, the elections office has mailed 61,741 ballots and 14,675 ballots have been returned.
Darling Allen said this year’s ballot weighed 0.9 ounces in June, when her office took it to the post office for testing. More recently, the two agencies found the ballot weighed 1.2 ounces.
“There is moisture in the air. It does affect the texture of the paper, and it is absorbent,” she said. “We did our due diligence. … No ballot is being delayed.”
Tuesday was the last day to request a vote-by-mail ballot.
Full Article: Heavy ballots may need extra postage; still getting delivered to elections office – Redding.