How to design vote by mail envelopes for USPS

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How to design vote by mail envelopes for USPS

When you design election mail, you have to meet the needs of different audiences — including your partners at the U.S. Postal Service. USPS needs your mailpieces to be machinable and automation compliant, and navigating those requirements alongside your election code can be a lot to manage.

This guide gives you a practical overview of the design elements required for vote by mail envelopes, with links to the official USPS rules. Use it to move through the design process more confidently — and to make your review with a USPS Mail Design Analyst go more smoothly.

Who is this guide for?

Election offices designing envelopes for their vote by mail programs.

How to design VBM envelopes for USPS

This guide covers:

  • The elements required to mail your ballots, and USPS features specifically for election mail
  • Design indicators that help voters recognize mail ballots when they arrive
  • A USPS rules checklist
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Research behind this guide

This guide is based on our body of work on vote by mail templates and the USPS Direct Mail Manual.

Research behind this guide

This guide is based on our body of work on vote by mail.

This research is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License. You are free to share and adapt for non-commercial purposes. If you share, cite the Center for Civic Design as the source. If you have questions about applying this work, contact director@civicdesign.org