Ending Saturday mail affects Washington balloting

The Associated Press — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 18:22:24 +0000

With Saturday mail delivery ending this summer, Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman says voters should think about getting their ballots in the mail sooner.

She says ballots should be mailed Friday before Election Day to make sure they are postmarked by the deadline.

The Postal Service plans to end Saturday service on Aug. 3, which will be the final weekend before Washington's Aug. 6 primary.

Voters also can return their ballots in drop boxes and many counties say more than half their ballots are dropped off.

Postal Service says no more Saturday mail

Mark Memmott — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:43:14 +0000

(We updated the top of this post at 10:37 a.m. ET.)

Calling it "absolutely necessary" if the U.S. Postal Service is going to stop losing billions of dollars a year and reach anything close to financial stability, Postmaster Gen. Patrick Donahoe confirmed Wednesday morning that USPS is moving to eliminate Saturday delivery of first-class mail.

"Beginning the week of Aug. 5 this year," Donahoe said, USPS will provide "six days of package delivery and five days of mail delivery.