Issue With Returning NRA Ballots

As can be seen in the picture below, there is an issue with the receipt of NRA ballots by Rogers & Co. They are the accounting firm charged with counting the votes in the 2022 NRA Board of Directors election.

This is a case where the US Postal Service is not to blame.

Years and years ago I had a small business that managed political mailing lists and processed them to append the correct ZIP Plus 4. I understand something about how the Plus 4 for a ZIP Code is generated. In the case of post office boxes, the ZIP Plus 4 is the ZIP Code plus the post office box number. If you look at where I’ve circled in red on the envelope, you will see that this is not the case with the ballot return envelope. It is clear that when the Postal Service’s automated sorting equipment read the bar code below the address it saw this as a problem.

The correct ZIP Plus 4 for the return envelope of the ballots should have been 22027-0686. I confirmed this by using the Postal Service’s ZIP Code lookup tool.

The returned ballot leads to the obvious question: how many valid ballots have been returned to the sender or even discarded by the US Postal Service? The follow-up question is it enough to affect the outcome of the board election. With the death this week of Rep. Don Young (R-AK), you now have 29 candidates seeking essentially 28 seats when you add in the 76th Director. Until the votes are counted, we won’t know how many votes separated each candidate.

Ballots must be received by May 8th. If you have not returned your ballot yet, you may want to consider my suggestion on how to correct the issue.

In the picture below is another ballot that has not been mailed yet. If you look where I’ve circled in red, here are my suggestions to make sure it arrives in Dunn Loring, Virginia and is counted. First, scratch out the Plus 4 portion of the ZIP Code. Second, scratch out the bar code below the address. Doing both of these actions will prevent the US Postal Service’s automated sorters from rejecting the ballot due to conflicts between the address and the ZIP Code Plus 4.

It is my understanding that NRA Secretary and General Counsel John Frazer has been made aware of this issue. As this issue just came to light this weekend, it is too early to see if he will have any response.

UPDATE: If you are a voting member of the NRA and have not sent in your ballot yet, please check the envelope’s return address. I would like to know if you have a different return address or different ZIP Plus 4. I happen to know that these two examples come from the eastern Pennsylvania area. That is also the home of reform candidate Frank Tait.

You can leave either a comment in the comment’s section or email me at jpr9954 AT gmail dot com. I would especially be interested getting a photo of your envelope if it is different.

UPDATE II: I have heard from readers in Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, and North Carolina that their return envelopes all had the wrong ZIP Plus 4 on it.

I have also heard that there are more people in eastern Pennsylvania who have had their ballots returned as undeliverable.