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Election HQ

Campaign Mail Deadlines & Election Planning

Working backward from election day.

Election dates do not move. Everything else on a campaign schedule does, which is why campaign mail is planned in reverse: from the date it must be in hands, back through USPS entry, production, proof approval and data preparation, to the date your file has to be final.

483 days to California Presidential Primary
Tuesday, March 7, 2028
Ballots start being mailed no later than February 7
454 days from today

Counties start mailing ballots no later than 29 days before the election; some start earlier.

Talk to a Mail Specialist Get a Quote

Tell us three things

  • The required in-home date
  • The voter universe, roughly
  • The piece size, or a sample

From those we can work out the schedule and tell you plainly whether the date holds.

A strapped bundle of political mail, addresses blurred
Bundle strapped for the tray
  • Since 2008Producing print and mail in Vista, California
  • USPS Full-ServiceCertified Mail Service Provider
  • Piece-level verificationCamera-read add-on for letter-size mail
  • AAPC memberAmerican Association of Political Consultants
  • Vista ChamberChamber of Commerce member

Working backward

The four things between your file and a mailbox

California ballots start being mailed no later than 29 days before election day

California mails a ballot to every registered voter. Counties start mailing no later than 29 days before election day, and some start earlier.

  1. USPS transitSet by mail class and where the mail is entered. First-Class moves faster than Marketing Mail and is always entered locally; Marketing Mail can also be entered nearer the district, which moves it faster. This is the part that cannot be compressed, only chosen.
  2. ProductionDriven by quantity, format and finishing. Multiple versions do not add press time, because a version is a data field, but they do add proof cycles.
  3. Proof approvalUsually the most underestimated step. A proof waiting on a committee for two days spends two days of the schedule.
  4. Data preparationStandardization, NCOA, deduplication, householding and segmentation. A clean file is quick; a file assembled from three sources is where schedules actually go wrong.

Before you call

Answer some of it yourself, free

Three free mailing tools answer most of it: the Mail Date Planner works back from your in-home date to when files are due, the Piece Size Tool checks whether the piece mails as a letter, and the Mailing List Builder counts the households in a district and estimates the postage. None of the three needs an account, and the List Builder carries its count straight into an order or a quote request. Mailing Blueprint, which prices your own voter file, needs a free account.

Every level of the ballot

The same controls for every race

Races we produce for range from school board and water district seats mailing a couple of thousand households to congressional campaigns across several counties, with city council, community college board, county supervisor, judicial, Assembly, State Senate and ballot measure committees in between. All of them run through the same controls. A down-ballot candidate receives the same list processing and tracking as a federal race and can add the same camera verification on letter-size mail, because a bad list costs proportionally more when the margin is two hundred votes.

Yard signs and door hangers

Field material on the same schedule

Yard signs, bumper stickers, door hangers, palm cards, walk pieces, banners and campaign t-shirts ship with the mail program, on one purchase order and one schedule. For planning, that means one set of dates to work back from, where three vendors would mean three delivery dates and three interpretations of the same logo.

Where we produce

Southern California, from Vista

Campaign work across five counties, with entry chosen per mailing rather than by policy:

Southern California service area County outlines from US Census boundary data; cities plotted from actual coordinates. Orange County Riverside County San Diego County Santa Barbara County Los Angeles County San Bernardino County Ventura County Los Angeles Orange Riverside San Bernardino San Diego Ventura Santa Barbara San Diego La Mesa Lemon Grove Vista Oceanside San Marcos Escondido Encinitas Carlsbad Poway Del Mar Chula Vista Anaheim Santa Ana Irvine Huntington Beach Garden Grove Costa Mesa Orange Buena Park Mission Viejo Aliso Viejo Lake Forest San Clemente Westminster Stanton Placentia Yorba Linda Laguna Hills La Habra Los Angeles Long Beach Glendale Pasadena Burbank Santa Clarita Santa Monica Beverly Hills West Hollywood Redondo Beach Manhattan Beach Carson Lakewood West Covina Covina La Mirada Riverside San Bernardino Moreno Valley Corona Jurupa Valley Temecula Murrieta Hemet Perris San Jacinto Banning Beaumont Calimesa Canyon Lake Wildomar Victorville Ventura Santa Barbara San Diego P&DC Santa Ana P&DC Los Angeles P&DC Moreno Valley P&DC Vista (Plavidian) City with campaign work USPS processing facility Plavidian, Vista
County boundaries from US Census data. Cities where Plavidian has produced work are plotted from actual coordinates, with the USPS processing facilities serving each area.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

When are California ballots mailed?

Counties start mailing ballots to all registered voters no later than 29 days before the election, and some start earlier.

How far ahead do you need our file?

Work backward: USPS transit for the class and entry point, plus production time for the quantity and format, plus proof approval, plus data processing. For a standard postcard with a clean list that is commonly a small number of business days before entry; a multi-version program with a list that needs work is longer. Tell us the in-home date and we will give you the file deadline.

What if the list is not ready?

Send it anyway, in whatever state it is in. Data problems are cheaper to find three weeks out than three days out, and the file deadline is usually driven by how much work the list needs rather than by the press.

Can we drop mail in phases?

Yes. Phased drops spread cash flow, let you react to what the first piece does, and reduce the risk of one delivery problem affecting the whole program.

Do you handle field material as well?

Yes. Yard signs, bumper stickers, door hangers, palm cards, banners and campaign apparel are produced to the same artwork and the same schedule as the mail.

What if our in-home date is close?

Tell us the date anyway. There is usually something achievable, and it is better to know the honest options than to find out after artwork is finished. First-Class buys days that Marketing Mail does not, and Marketing Mail entered closer to the district buys more.

Postal terms: IMb, Full-Service, eInduction, presort. Related: Political Mail guide, Campaign Mail Printing

Have an election deadline?

Tell us the required in-home date, the voter universe and roughly how many pieces. We work backward to the production and USPS entry schedule, and tell you plainly whether it holds.

Get a Quote Discuss Your Campaign

Related

Political mail, end to end

Guides and services for campaigns, committees and elected offices, from voter data to delivery.