PICTURED ABOVE IS JUST ONE OF THE MAILBOXES IN DISTRICT 3 THAT RECEIVED A FLYER FROM CANDIDATE FLOYD DAVIS THAT WAS IMPROPERLY DISTRIBUTED. Floyd Davis, a candidate for the District 3 supervisor post, came precariously close to incurring a major campaign expense late last week.

A Davis campaign worker violated federal postal regulations while delivering of a campaign flyer to rural post boxes in District 3. The worker would raise the flag on each mailbox and place the flyer between the box and the flag.

One resident complained to Cathey’s Valley postmaster Glenda Miller, and she contacted Davis on Saturday to inform him of the illegal practice.

There was apparently a missed communication somewhere in that conversation according to Davis. He said he assured Miller that nothing was being put “inside” the boxes, but he thought it was still alright to place them on the box, although he didn’t raise the question.

Saturday evening, when contacted by the GAZETTE Davis said he had “Googled” the postal regulations and thought everything was fine. On Monday morning, things got a little dicey for the candidate.

Mariposa postmaster, Tim Abbott, said that practice was absolutely forbidden under U.S Post Office regulations, and any violation could carry a heavy fine.

Abbott sited rule number 8.3.2 of the Domestic Mail Manual entitled Liability for Postage. It reads, “Except for limited use by newspapers under 508.3.0, any mailable matter not bearing postage found in, upon, attached to, supported by, or hung from private mail receptacles described in 508.3.0 is subject to payment of the same postage if carried by mail.”

Under the penalty clause, rule number 8.3.1 states, in part, “with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined not more than $5,000 per individual or $10,000 per organization.”

“It was purely a misunderstanding on my part,” Davis told the

GAZETTE Tuesday afternoon. “I wasn’t aware of the regulations, and I sincerely apologize for this error in judgement. It was certainly wasn’t an action to circumvent any regulations regarding the postal authorities or the FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission).”

Abbott said in most cases like this, his carriers would remove the flyers and return them to the post office. They would be counted, then destroyed, and a bill for the postage would be sent to whatever return address was on the flyer.

Apparently they were removed before mail delivery on Monday, since none of the mail carriers returned with any flyers. There was also no return address on the piece, so Davis dodged what could have been a very expensive bullet.