Campaign Season

shoe72 · Oct 30, 2026

Has anyone ever, especially this year, ever wondered the amount of money the PO loses to the free mailing sent out by politicians for campaign season?
They do not pay for it and we, the rurals, deliver it. It adds to our daily numbers(we hope) so we get paid for it but at what cost to the USPS?
Saw today that my congressional area is considered the most expensive campaigns in all of my state with all the ads, mailings, posters and rallies.
Just wondered about how much the PO is losing.
TV is unwatchable and my own mail is loaded with attack ads daily.

Gotrope · Oct 31, 2026

they do get up to 4 mailings a year for free from USPS under congressional record. however, anything mailed within 60 days of an election is paid advertising. not that they paid very much for the effort done by USPS but, it is paid. last I checked it averaged about .15- .50 cents postage per piece depending upon volume in mailing. anything over 10000 gets a significant discount which is why you frequently have multiple at an address to get the big discount on per piece count.

really · Oct 31, 2026

At 85 letters a minute we really don't get paid for any of it. thats the way i look at it.
we only get paid for parcels now

Gotrope · Oct 31, 2026

really said:
At 85 letters a minute we really don't get paid for any of it. thats the way i look at it.
we only get paid for parcels now

it does add a lot of volume to DPS on an election year. usually the difference between a category of day off.

shoe72 · Nov 1, 2026

Most of the political flyers we get now are separate bundles that have to cased. The ones in the DPS already seem to be smaller postcard size.
Not that it matters to me this year, I am out on medical leave and go back Thursday after election...funny how that turned out.

Offspeed · Nov 1, 2026

Non of that laminated paper they use recyclable either.

muttleycrue · Nov 1, 2026

Offspeed said:
Non of that laminated paper they use recyclable either.

and it doesn't burn well due to all the fillers in the coating

hockey94 · Nov 2, 2026

We always had to deliver the political crap AFTER the election happened ! We were told that the political mail was already paid for, which I guess was/is true.

Herma · Nov 2, 2026

Actually, politicians don't get free postage for their campaign flyers—their campaign funds pay standard commercial or non-profit rates for those massive bulk dumps, so the Postal Service is definitely cashing in on the volume. The real headache is on our end in the LLV. Carrying dynamic routes when every single DPS tray is jammed with heavy cardstock flyers and EDDM bundles that tear up your fingers makes the route take twice as long. The extra volume helps our evaluation count on paper, but standard rate junk mail doesn't pay out nearly enough to cover the actual overtime and stress we deal with every election cycle.