What to do with political junk mail

Electoral mail-outs are far and away my pet hate for the year 2010.  In the federal and state elections I got my information from the source -- looking at the various party platforms on the web.  Of course, many voters are not as scrupulous in this regard, but it does cut out the static of being told by sundry Dear Leaders to fear the Greens.

I would welcome a mechanism which allowed one to opt out of party mail-outs.  The various stutterings about the major parties keeping electoral databases highlights the essential privacy issue at stake: it is very rare for a political party to seek the consent of the voter whose personal information is accrued in this way.  I wouldn't call it corruption so much as an unwelcome incursion into people's space.  It is at least as intrusive as cold-call surveys, fundraising appeals and sales pitches.

As a voter, the thing I resent most is the use of plain envelopes.  At least the sender address allows one to put it back into circulation.  I've lost count of the number of mail items I've sent back in this way through the two elections this year.

Message to Labour and Liberal:

• Sending electoral material in this way is mightily rude for those of us who would prefer not to receive it.
• Unidentified envelopes have become a dead give-away.  Make it obvious who the sender is so that I don't have to waste my time matching up the sender address before putting it back in the post.
• There are better uses for your postal budget.  I've found one which gets two bangs out of one postal charge: