PBI Pitney Bowes Inc

More than 16 million Americans who registered to vote in 2004 failed to go to the polls on Election Day, according to the Census Bureau. Nearly half of those cited reasons for not voting that easily could have been overcome by absentee balloting. These reasons include schedule conflicts, travel, inconvenient polling locations, illness or disability, bad weather, or transportation problems. According to a Pitney Bowes survey, 49% of Americans would find voting by mail to be more convenient than voting in person. In 2004, absentee ballots accounted for only 13% of total votes cast. Further, 74% of respondents reported that they would at least consider voting by mail if their state made it easy to do so, and 37% said they would �definitely� or �probably� vote by mail if it was made convenient. With the help of Pitney Bowes Inc.�s (NYSE: PBI) Relia-Vote Mail Balloting System, jurisdictions across the country are updating and streamlining the voting process to operate more efficiently and better serve constituents who vote by mail. In addition, Relia-Vote streamlines the process for county administrators who today manually process each request for a ballot; prepare ballots and envelopes for mass mailing; and, verify and sort ballots returned by the voters in their jurisdiction. Relia-Vote automates the entire process adding security, personalization and integrity to the entire process. �Citizens appreciate the opportunity to thoughtfully review the ballot in their homes before mailing in their official vote,� said Patrick Brand, President of Pitney Bowes Document Factory Solutions. �Voting by mail is a win-win for the citizens, politicians and government administrators. This is a highly visible benefit for citizens and, at the same time, Relia-Vote minimizes exposure to election mishaps.� The Relia-Vote system gives election officials and voters peace-of-mind that the entire mail-in balloting process is monitored and managed in an end-to-end process. The Outbound system gets the ballots to the right voters at the right address, at the lowest cost. It offers mail ballot tracking and audit capabilities that meet public and political demands for transparency. When voters cast their vote through the mail, the Relia-Vote Inbound Mail Ballot processing equipment ensures accountability with sorting and data capture equipment. In fact, equipment sensors are programmed to look for anomalies like envelopes with two ballots, or envelopes without ballots. The Relia-Vote system also offers flexibility and can adapt to future voting requirements. To date, 14 counties throughout the United States have adopted either the Inbound or Outbound solution of the Relia-Vote Mail Balloting System. About Pitney Bowes: Pitney Bowes is a mailstream technology company that helps organizations manage the flow of information, mail, documents and packages. Our 35,000 employees deliver technology, service and innovation to more than two million customers worldwide. The company was founded in 1920 and annual revenues now total $6.1 billion. More information is available at www.pb.com Editors note: Vote By Mail experts available today by phone and for broadcast.