I hear tell that Watson Township Supervisor-elect Kevin Travis may have used an unfair advantage in his campaign recently concluded.
Travis, a Republican who defeated incumbent Democrat Pam Brown 524 to 435 in the Nov. 8 general election, actually went mailbox-to-mailbox rather than door-to-door. Instead of placing his campaign fliers on doors or near the front porch, he pinned his ads between the mailbox and the flag. His strategy allowed him to get his message out faster and to more residents than the classic knock on doors and talk to residents or leave literature on the porch.
What also makes it unfair was that he in some way used the U.S. Postal Service without paying postage like the rest of us working stiffs.
I and some friends did some research and found this admonition on the Internet from someone who’s been there:
“If you’re leaving campaign literature, fliers, brochures or door cards at people’s houses, make sure your stuff doesn’t come in contact with the mailbox in any way.
“Most people don’t know this, but the United States Post Office is allowed to fine you if you leave any kind of correspondence inside a mailbox — or even touching a mailbox — that you haven’t paid for postage on.
“I found this out the hard way last year during my first campaign for city council. I was under the impression that the law only stated that you couldn’t put campaign literature inside the mailboxes, so I made a habit of sliding my door cards in between the mailboxes and the house.
This apparently ticked off a particular letter carrier, who yanked all of my literature on his route, threw it away and filed a report with the USPS. I ended up having to pay a fine that was north of a hundred bucks.
“It’s better to just keep your fliers far away from mailboxes and put them in the voter’s door, or under the doormat.”
More than a few Watson citizens told me they found Travis campaign fliers on their mailboxes and they asked if it was unfair or illegal. Further research turned up this:
“Section 1725 of Title 18 of the United 
States Code states that whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.”
The Domestic Mail Manual (at www.usps.com) goes into more specifics. It states that no part of a mail receptacle may be used to deliver any matter not bearing postage, including items or matter placed upon, supported by, attached to, hung from, or inserted into a mail receptacle.”
Furthermore, “Section D041 of The Domestic Mail Manual also states the penalty for violating this section is that you pay the postage that you would have paid had you actually mailed your flyer. If you use the average of a 2.5 person household, you would have about 3,600 mailboxes in a town of 9,000. The fine, therefore, for stuffing all of the mailboxes in your town could run into the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.”
I have no clue if improper use of postal service while campaigning would result in a new election for the Watson supervisor’s position, but it is clear Travis could be subject to fines for what he did on the campaign trail.
What’s also disappointing is that Travis is an attorney and should know better.
If someone wants to file a complaint with the U.S. Postal Service or with Allegan County Clerk Joyce Watts, I urge them to do so. I won’t do it because 1. “I don’t want no trouble, mister” and 2. the County Clerk does not like me.
