Election postal ballot - missing person report !!!

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Vinod Negi

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Dec 13, 2011, 11:05:29 PM12/13/11

to SJA Alumni Association, stjosep...@googlegroups.com, josephit...@googlegroups.com

Okay - time to update you on my visit to the Post Office.. came home a little early from office and saw a pink colored slip asking me to pick up a package from the Alexandria, Va main post office. I said - yeah - finally the ballot is here and my mind raced to how I need to get it and fill up, scan and also head to Fedex/DHL and send it out quickly, hoping it will still make the deadline. The words of Aman Singh were in my mind. He sent it on the 9th and it reached on the 12th.. I am calculating the days ... quickly drove to the post office - it was packed as people are sending out gift packages for Christmas etc.. after 20 mins I give the slip to the clerk and he brings out a white SJA AA envelope. I open it quickly and it’s the agenda.. I look inside hoping to find the ballot.. no ballot.. what? I ask the guy.. did you miss it - there should be a ballot inside the package.. he looks at me as if I am nuts..I said - oops sorry .. I am waiting for a postal ballot and it’s not inside. He said.. this is what is there and calls for the next customer. I am reading the Agenda and noting the audit figures but I don't see the ballot anywhere. So now I am pissed. I look at the envelope and it is marked 12/1/2011.. sent out on December 1, 2011.. just the agenda. I trot out to the car and look for the prints I took out of the receipt.. head back with the receipt to the counter.. this time to another clerk but this one looks like a supervisor and more authoritative. Meanwhile, I have checked the envelope, matched the numbers and they are different.. dates are different but the address is complete and correct on the envelope. The postal ballot was sent on 11/23/11.. this one was sent on 12/1/11!!! This one is already here and the postal ballot is missing!! So, I hand over the print to the guy and explained him the case. He listened patiently and asked me to come around to the other desk and asked me to wait.. he disappears inside and is gone for 15 mins and comes out shaking his head.. No.. there is nothing.. he has double checked the 22314 pin code mail bin and there is nothing in there. He now gets on the computer and taps in furiously a few numbers and picks up the phone - talking to another office, they go up and down and then he is reading out the postal ballot tracking number twice over.. after a good 15-20 mins.. he hands over the print to me and says .. there is NO RECORD of this package ever entering the USPS system in the past 3 weeks!!!! The United States Post Office has no information on this package. I am .. but .. but .. but and then I figure it.. the guy has done his research, was extremely courteous and efficient and took the pains to go back and check the entire bin and then make a call to another office.. who does this in a Post office? I thank him .. take the print, come out and get into the car and head to my health club.. need to take out my stress on the racquet ball !!! Thank you every one who tried to help me in my quest to cast my ballot. Once again, it has been a letdown. Question is - where is the postal ballot package? A mystery ??? Or simply a let down by the wonderful people who have done a superb job at the elections committee..... you be the judge!!!