Postal Service Photographs Every Piece of Mail in the U.S., Shares With Agencies That Request It

Newsweek ^ | 10-28-2014 | Lauren Walker

[Marcell]

The USPS uses a program called Mail Imaging, which takes a photograph of the outside of every piece of mail sent in the U.S. While the primary purpose of taking the pictures is to process the mail, law enforcement agencies are able to request images of mail sent and received by a target they are investigating.

[The Westerner]

Didn’t think of this!

[jetson]

There are reports that in some states, once the mail in ballot is separated from the envelope, the envelope is destroyed.

But every ballot has a number that has to be associated with a name plus the bar code should still be on the envelope where it was photographed?

[woodpusher]

If true, there is a photographic record of every ballot that was delivered via US mail.

This is not new. It is over 20 years old. Envelopes (and flats) are processed on automation equipment. The mail is dumped on a conveyor belt and feeds up to the machine where it is OCR scanned. If scanned successfuly, a bar code is sprayed on for sorting purposes by another machine. If the OCR is not successful, the image is sent to a computer terminal which could (at least in the past) be at a remote location, even in another state, and a Data Conversion Operator (DCO) sees the image and keys in the data necessary to create the bar code.

The bar code is formed from the 9-digit zip or, if needed, several bits of the addressing information on the envelope.

[PghBaldy]

The only drop box in my County was in Downtown Pittsburgh. Only the voter could drop it off, or someone authorized in writing by the voter.

Main issue is how many Democrats would travel to Downtown to drop it off. Kind of a pain in the backside.

[a real Sheila]

The photo is only kept for 7 days.
Doubtful the Trump team thought to ask for those in time and/or the USPS would make sure their equipment had a “glitch” during that time.

[Vaduz]

The fraudulent ballots were put into drop boxes - they weren’t sent through the mail.

Indeed it’s why the counting stopped and the 3am drops happen.

[devane617]

I get an email daily with an image/photo of all my mail. called: “informed delivery”

[carikadon]

The exact same thing happens to me. I constantly get the message “there are mail pieces that we currently don’t have images that are included in today’s mail”. So how reliable can that really be.

[hsmomx3]

Did you notice it has happened more so in the last four weeks? Even today, same thing!!

[ConjunctionJunction]

If they took a picture of the envelopes, then that would include the outside code, which could be used to identify the voter. And then the voter name could be compared to the signature on the outside envelope (if there is one - requirements vary by state) to see if there’s a match.

[plain talk]

“If they took a picture of the envelopes, then that would include the outside code, which could be used to identify the voter.”

Doubtful that would be of much help. People submitting fraudulent ballots probably wouldn’t use USPS. If they did they could easily use a plain envelope with a dummy return address.

[Crucial]

The only problem is that some ballots were manually processed and hand stamped before the deadline.

[sipster]

Your county only had one drop box, but that wasn’t true in other counties in PA. And the data is very telling.

In Allegheny County (a single, controlled drop box):
2016:
56% Clinton
40% Trump

2020:
59% Biden
39% Trump

A bit of a shift towards the Dems, but mostly coming from the lack of third party voters this year.

Now look at Berks county (multiple drop boxes)
2016:
43% Clinton
52% Trump

2020:
53% Clinton
45% Trump

That was a 10 point increase for the Dems and a 7 point decrease for Republicans. Much more significant in a county with multiple drop box locations than in a county with a single location.

[lucky american]

That’s only if it goes through the machines. I deliver mail and I’ve seen thousands of pieces from all over the country without a postmark. Watch your mail, sometimes the stamp will get through without an indicia. had one today, that made it all the way from Florida to NH without a postmark.I manually inked the stamps.