Harrisburg – William Thomas thought something was amiss when he received his third doe license before his antlerless tag from his second round application arrived.
His first round application was processed and a license arrived for Wildlife Management Unit 2G without issue. In the second round, Thomas, who resides in York County, applied for WMU 5B, and he did so again when the third round opened. But after receiving the third round before the second, Thomas contacted the York County Treasurer’s Office to find out what was going on.
Turns out he wasn’t the only one going through the same scenario.
“The treasurer told me the post office was sending back the pink envelopes. Some were sent back to the county treasurer four or five times,” Thomas said.
He eventually got his license from the second round, albeit it little bit late.
York County Treasurer Barbara Bair confirmed there was an issue with the Post Office sending licenses back to her office. She asked the Post Office to look into the matter, but isn’t sure what caused the problem.
“We completed license applications and put them in the pink envelopes and sent them out,” Bair said. “We had some that were returned multiple times. One dau we got half a tray returned, which is several hundred licenses. It was rather frustrating.”
Bair said the same issue has arisen in the past, but never to this degree.
“We made sure there were no marks on the envelopes and sent them back out. Eventually they got there,” she said.
Desai Abdul-Razzaaq, strategic communications for the U.S. Postal Service’s Central Pennsylvania District, said they have not yet confirmed there was an issue with the mail-processing machine’s optical reader during the processing of the Pennsylvania Game Commission envelopes.
If letters are not placed in the processing equipment correctly, the reader will sometimes read the return address instead of the destination address, Abdul-Razzaaq said in an email. That will cause the letters to be returned to sender in error.
Game Commission Communications Director Travis Lau said the agency received one complaint from a hunter regarding antlerless deer licenses being returned to the York county Treasurer. He said the PGC contacted the treasurer’s office and was told they have been and continue to field these issues and re-email envelopes that are returned from the Post Office.
Lau added the agency heard of several issues unique to this year’s processing of antlerless license application.
“The PGC works with county treasurer offices for any issues that arise with the antlerless deer lottery,” he said.
Thomas is relieved to finally receive all of his antlerless licenses, and he doesn’t believe the York County Treasurer is at fault.
The issue, he said, is with the Post Office. “For some reason the reader at the office wasn’t picking up the right address,” Thomas said. “If they can’t handle doe licenses, how are they going to be able to handle the election?”
