Mail ballots returned for stamps despite USPS pact

If you used a mail-in ballot for Scottsdale’s May 16 City Council runoff and Proposition 402 election, don’t be surprised if you find it back in your mailbox.

Residents are reporting that some ballots are being kicked back for insufficient postage.

Yvonne Reed, spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Elections Department, said Scottsdale is the only Valley municipality where the problem, which also occurred in 2004, exists.

“This isn’t a problem anywhere else in the Valley,” Reed said. “The post office is supposed to take money from an account we have set up (for insufficient postage) and forward the ballots to us. We ask them to do that.”

Reed said the department’s postal liaison will work with a counterpart at the postal service to straighten out the error.

Peter Haas, spokesman for the Arizona district of the U.S. Postal Service, said he and Scottsdale postmaster Jeffrey Day were looking into the problem.

“The process should be seamless. We don’t like to see this happen,” Haas said. “We apologize to anyone who had a ballot returned and ask them to bring it to any post office and ask for the supervisor, and we will forward it at no additional charge. We’re making sure all post offices in the county know this occurred so it doesn’t happen again.”

On April 19, north Scottsdale resident Dennis McGill made his choices, slapped a 39-cent stamp on the mail-in ballot and popped it into a mailbox outside the Via Linda Senior Center.

Two days later, the ballot arrived at McGill’s home, returned for insufficient postage. The notice showed an additional 24 cents due.

“I can’t believe it,” McGill said. “I called the election bureau and the woman who answered the phone said, ‘We’ve been told to tell anyone who call it’s going to take two stamps.’ ”

Reed said that’s not what McGill was supposed to hear.

“We’re working to find a way to stop this from happening,” Reed said. “We’re hearing if they bring it to a post office in Scottsdale, they are told it will cost them more (than 39 cents) to mail it.”

Councilmen Bob Littlefield and Kevin Osterman are competing in the runoff election. Prop. 402 calls for a higher cap on city spending.

McGill is frustrated. He’s concerned that some people, especially seniors, won’t want to put extra postage on the ballot and resend it.

Voters can return their completed ballots by mail, drop them off between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd., or the Via Linda Senior Center, 10440 N. Via Linda. On election day, they can be dropped off until 7 p.m. at any open polling place in Maricopa County.