Young people don’t vote because stamps are hard? Ballots will be delivered without them

As Election Day approaches, volunteers and campaign groups are doing whatever they can to boost voter turnout. But among some young voters, there’s a particular issue stopping them: The hassle of finding stamps and mailing in absentee ballots.

“You have to do it by mail, which is very annoying because as a college student that requires several steps,” student Fiona Hinds said, according to WNYC. “I had to go to the library to print out the thing, then I had to buy an envelope, and I had to go mail it.”

A 29-year-old voter named Megan said she often forgets to check the deadlines to mail the ballot , and then just decides not to “because I don’t own a printer or stamps anyway,” according to New York Magazine. Another voter, 27-year-old Tim, said, “I tried to register for the 2016 election, but it was beyond the deadline by the time I tried to do it. I hate mailing stuff; it gives me anxiety,” according to the magazine.

Lisa Connors, of the Fairfax County Office of Public Affairs in Virginia, said a focus group of college students told officials that getting stamps was a major hurdle preventing them from sending in their vote, WTOP reported.

“They all agreed that they knew lots of people who did not send in their ballots because it was too much of a hassle or they didn’t know where to get a stamp,” Connors said, according to the station. “Across the board, they were all nodding and had a very spirited conversation about ‘Oh yeah, I know so many people who didn’t send theirs in because they didn’t have a stamp.’ ”

Matt Fuller, a congressional reporter for the Huffington Post, tweeted, “So this is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a bunch of millennials who don’t know how to mail things.”

But young people — and anyone else struggling to find postage before the election — can put some of those worries to rest. The postal service will deliver absentee ballots even without postage. It’s official policy.

“Technically, sending mail requires postage,” USPS spokesperson Sue Brennan said, according to TIME. “Voters should affix a stamp to their ballot. But, if they do not, the Postal Service will still deliver it and charge the postage to the appropriate office.”

According to the USPS, if a ballot is received without the correct postage, it cannot be returned like a normal piece of mail. Instead, the ballot will be mailed to the election office to be counted. That office will be charged for the postage or it will be collected “at a later date,” according to the USPS.

“The Postal Service is steadfast in our commitment to support democracy,” spokeswoman Kim Frum said, according to the Washington Post. “We will not deny a voter their right to vote by delaying a time-sensitive ballot because of insufficient postage.”