The notorious, erroneous voter registration mailing from some unknown source to certain places in North Carolina was diaried here about 10 days ago.
Being as I am a freelance reporter who spent a lot of time while a fulltime journalist covering government transparency and still working on certain projects, I thought I might track down the owner of the "First Class Return Mail Permit" printed on the return mail envelope.
"Arlington Va. Permit 236."
I think we may need to Koscrowdsource this one, as you will see.
The envelope that would direct registration forms not to the correct place, but to a plausible sounding state office, has a "postage paid by addressee" permit. The pictures are in the diary above. The permit's from Arlington, Va., and the addressee is the NC board of elections.
Why would they pay for misdirected registration forms?
I tried to contact the diarist for a shot of the envelope without the annotations. No luck.
Anyone have one?
It would also be interesting to see the envelope this stuff arrived in. Anyone save theirs?
More below the mail carrier route diagram.
I called the Alexandria PO and was directed to the "Business Mail" office and a nice guy named Claude Nelson.
I emailed Mr. Nelson the photo I had and waited. Finally, today I called.
After going around in circles for a few minutes, here is the info I gleaned - ultimately, Mr. Nelson was not at all helpful.
He wanted to know why I wanted to know who holds that permit. I explained I am a freelance journalist.
He kept saying "we will handle it within the postal community." Really?
Finally he said they won't give out permit holder information; it's "policy."
Now to my way of thinking, unless demonstrated otherwise, the Postal Service "policy" that mail permits are secret is aiding and abetting fraud -- apparently interstate fraud.
At the end I asked for the name of the FOIA contact for his office. He actually said he did not understand what "FOIA" meant.
Then he transferred my call to the consumer affairs help line somewhere, which of course had a long irrelevant phone menu, and then went to an answering machine.
Now, I don't think that there's any excuse for the claim that the postal permit owner is a secret. On the one hand, I don't think Mr. Nelson is in cahoots with the Kochs, AFP, or whichever group of fraudsters sent the mailer.
On the other hand, I expect to be treated with a little more respect, and directed in a professional manner to the proper place to go to the next level.
Next steps:
1. Identify the FOIA contact and submit the FOIA letter. "Russell" from customer service returned my call and gave me the number of the overall "Privacy Office" (?) at the USPS: 202-268-5514.
I've dealt with USPS on FOIA issues before, and they can be a true pain.
2. Contact the USPS press office too.
3. Simultaneously, contact my elected Congressionals and ask that their office call Mr. Nelson (as the starting point) and request the information; if he can't find it, get directions to reach the person who can.
Aside from perhaps finding another picture of the return mailer and the original envelope,
4. Can we get a selection of Kossacks concerned with this false info issue, and the possible fraud involved, go through their electeds to ask the same question: "Who holds First Class Reply Mail Permit 236, Alexandria, Va.?"
They should quickly understand that the same strategy could be deployed against voters in their state or district.