Voter Registration Postage and the 4511 Permit
| T0: | County Voter Registrars |
| From: | Dan Glotzer, Election Funds Manager |
| Date: | December 4, 2012 |
| RE: | Voter Registration Postage and the 4511 Permit |
Section 13.121 of the Texas Election Code requires that official voter registration applications be mailed in a business reply postcard form, with postage paid by the state. The Code also requires the Secretary of State’s Office to obtain a Business Reply Mail (BRM) permit, which is renewed annually, from the US Postal Service for the use of the postage-paid application form and arrange for payments of the postal charges with warrants issued by the Comptroller of Public Accounts. The BRM permit number obtained by the Secretary of State is 4511 and is valid from January 1 until December 31 of each year. Accordingly, this year’s permit covers January 1, 2013 thru December 31, 2013. Attached is a copy of the 2013 4511 Permit (PDF).
By way of this correspondence, counties are authorized to use the 4511 permit to receive voter registration applications at the county’s local post office. A county must deliver a copy of the 4511 permit and a copy of this memo to the local county US Postmaster before December 31, 2012.
Most counties will utilize the Regular Postage Due Account Method (Basic Business Reply Mail); however, some counties qualify for a Business Reply Trust Account/Accounting Fee Method (High Volume Business Reply Mail). To qualify for a business reply trust account, a county must receive a larger volume of voter registration mail per year - 890 or more according to the US Postal Service. Each year the Secretary of State’s Office estimates the higher volume counties by running a report for the previous like year (e.g. if it’s an odd-numbered year, the report is run based on the most recent complete odd-numbered year). The 2013 high volume counties are based on 2011 statistics: 2011 Voter Registration Application Report. The counties that are estimated to have a high volume of voter registration applications based on that report are issued the accounting fee check of $605.00, which is mailed to each qualifying county and must be delivered to the county’s local postmaster.
For more information and complete instructions on how to request postage, please refer to the SOS website.
If you need assistance and/or have questions, please email the Elections Funds Management team or call us at 800-252-8683.