Folks - this is postal talk -
MLNA = Moved, Left No (forwarding) Address
COA = Change Of Address
Back in the old days - Postal Cards were not returnable unless the sender guaranteed return postage. That is one reason they were cheaper to send; no further obligation. But in practice many were returned. I could not find current policy. Maybe a Postal Freeper out there could chime in.
My point is to use the Postal Service as a mechanism to clean up your voter rolls begs for a lot of help. The mailman in the inner city is just going to put the mail with the address into the box at the delivery point. Keeping up with the current resident was the gift of a regular carrier, but the part-time folks could hardly know or keep up. So, if in doubt, and with no record of forwarding on file, put it into the box at the delivery point. Not a great way to determine if a voter still exists. Other points of distinction on postal policy -
Priority / First-Class is forwarded for 12 months, at no charge, as long as the sender did not place a non-forwarding endorsement on the mailpiece.
During months 13-18 the mail is returned to sender with the new address.
This information is retained for only 18 months. After 18 months, all address data is purged from our computers and the mail is simply returned to the sender endorsed “Forwarding Order Expired”. [www.usps.com]
A post card is not treated differently than other 1st Class mail.
DMM exhibit 507.1.5.1 is a nice little chart for determining which
action is required for 1st Class UAA bearing various ancillary service endorsements.
If there is no endorsement the postcard in handled as you stated for 1st Class or Priority Mail.
If a UAA post card has no return address it's simply trashed.