The Polish Post Office efficiently handled postal voting in the first round of the presidential elections

Poczta Polska (Polish Post) processed 174,000 election packages. Until June 26, packages were delivered to people under quarantine, isolation, or home isolation. This also applies to residents of the Baranów and Marklowice communes, where, due to coronavirus outbreaks, voting was restricted to postal voting.

The delivery of election packages was carried out in accordance with the deadlines set out in generally applicable regulations. Over 6,000 postal workers were involved in delivering the packages, most of them in the Silesian Voivodeship. An additional 7,000 employees were on duty at post offices and ensured the delivery of the packages to the District Election Commission on election day.

" Poczta Polska is the only operator on the market with experience in mass delivery of special mail. This is also due to our service to people with disabilities who voted by mail in previous elections. We leveraged this experience in handling the presidential elections, and this time we saw a record number of Poles who expressed their intention to vote by mail. Thanks to the efforts of many company employees and cooperation with municipal offices, we managed to successfully complete this process, " says Tomasz Zdzikot, President of the Management Board of Poczta Polska.

Election packages were sent by municipal offices exclusively as registered mail. They were marked with a special "Przesyłka Wyborcza" (Election Package). Two-person teams of postal workers delivered the packages to mailboxes, with the exception of packages for people with disabilities and those in quarantine, which had the "door-to-door" marking on the envelope. Additionally, if mailboxes were unavailable, damaged, or unable to be left in the mailbox (e.g., due to overflow), the packages were delivered by notification.

Nearly 78% of the packages were delivered to mailboxes, 20% to the door, and only 1.7% of the election mail was delivered with notifications. In cases where the address was incorrect, the voter's package could not be delivered, or the voter failed to collect the package within the specified timeframe, the packages were returned, which accounted for approximately 0.3% of the mail. The majority of the notified mail, nearly 64%, was collected by voters at post offices.

The greatest challenge faced workers in the regions of Baranów (Greater Poland Voivodeship) and Marklowice (Silesian Voivodeship), where voting was restricted to postal voting only. In Baranów, 3,600 ballot packages were to be delivered to 6,200 eligible voters, while in Marklowice, over 2,900 people registered to vote by post out of a population of over 4,200.

On election day, postal workers delivered return envelopes from mailboxes to 14,200 District Election Commissions. Packages not collected from the offices after notification were also forwarded to the District Election Commissions.