New Service Type IDs for Ballot Mail
June 21, 2018   Dave Lewis

Some things are not exciting, but important.  Then there are new Service Type ID’s (STID’s).  It’s a cork poppin’ occasion on the SnailWorks campus when the Postal Service rolls out a new STID.  On August 23, 2018, they are rolling out 23. The STID is our favorite piece of the Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb).  It’s a little three digit number that tells postal equipment what kind of mail it’s looking at, and what services the customer has requested.  For example, if you are sending a piece of Full-Service First-Class Mail and you want IV data AND Full-Service ACS data - Change Service Requested Option 2 (and you know you do), you just use STID 241 in your IMb.  Look at all the stuff we jammed into three little digits.  Of course you don’t literally print these three digits – you just build it into the IMb and throw it into the IMb blender where it is ground up into bars and sprinkled on your mail pieces.  At least that’s how they explained it to me… Anyway… The 23 new STID’s being released on August 23 are specifically for ballot mail.  That is the mailing out of official election ballots, and their return.  This is not the same as political or election mail – no candidate mailings, no issue mailings – just ballots.  22 of the STID’s are for outbound mail, one of them – 777 – is for inbound mail – ballots being returned.  The reasoning behind the special STID numbers is that the Postal Service wants to be able to identify and clear out ballot mail from facilities as required as elections approach.  Voting by mail is an important and growing part of our democratic process.  These STID’s are designed to improve that process. If you are not mailing official ballots, there is no benefit to using these STIDs.  Keep sending your candidate and election mailing as before.  If you want to take a first-hand look at these new STIDs, just click here and take a gander.

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