Political Postcards

At a district-wide count each card costs a few cents, and one run can carry a full slate or a single ask, with a different voter on every card. To compare this card with the everyday formats, browse every option on postcards printing, or build yours from the choices below.

A test set of 50 costs $16.48, enough to put a new message in front of your volunteers or one street before the district gets it. The tiers below list the set total at each count, so you can read what the next step up in the mailing adds.

What Are Political Postcards

Political postcards are full-color direct-mail cards that campaigns, candidates, PACs, and committees send to reach voters. At 4OVER4 they print in 14 sizes, from a 2.5" x 2.5" card up to a 6" x 11" mailer, on any of 22 stocks. Campaigns use them to introduce a candidate, push a ballot measure, remind voters of a polling place, ask for a donation, or drive turnout. Because the size is yours to pick, a quick reminder can run small and cheap while a full slate card runs large. If you want the everyday mailing formats, the Standard Postcards cover those, and political postcards sit right beside them for campaign work.

Political postcard printing for campaigns

Campaign mail carries copy that no other postcard has to carry, and it is the reason artwork gets sent back late in a cycle. Sort it before you lay out the front.

The paid for by disclaimer. Give it its own clear band rather than tucking it into the design. The usual home is along the bottom of the mail side or under the message block on the address side, set on a plain background so it reads without effort, boxed if your committee's practice is to box it. Reserve the space at layout stage: a disclaimer squeezed in after the art is finished is the one that ends up over a photo, too small, or inside the trim area where it can be cut. Keep it inside the safe margin, away from the trim edge, and clear of the address block and the indicia and barcode zone on the address side, because anything printed into that zone can slow the mailing down at the mail house. Confirm the exact wording your jurisdiction requires with your compliance counsel, because that wording changes by state and by committee type, and it is your artwork rather than a print setting.

The union bug. A union bug is artwork, not a press option, so it belongs in your file. Place the bug supplied by your union print buyer into the layout and it prints exactly as it appears in your file, at whatever size and position you set. We print what you upload and nothing gets added or dropped in prepress, so check the bug is present on the proof before you approve, because a card that goes out without it is a reprint rather than a fix.

Between those two, the remaining space decides the size. A 2.5" x 2.5" card is a reminder piece and little else. Most persuasion mail lives in the middle of the 14 sizes, and a full 6" x 11" mailer is what you pick when a disclaimer, a photo, a contrast section and a polling place line all have to coexist without crowding.

What Size Should a Political Postcard Be

The right size comes down to how much you need to say and how much postage you want to spend. A compact 3" x 4" card keeps a big get-out-the-vote blast affordable, while a 6" x 11" mailer gives you room for a candidate bio, a full slate, or a side-by-side on a ballot measure. There are 14 set sizes in all, and if none is exactly right you can set a custom size up to 6" x 11" in the configurator. The 14 sizes, both finishes and all 22 stocks are listed below in the groups you choose from when you order. For a premium foil-accented look, the Metallic Foil Postcards take the same formats up a tier.

Three choices shape how a campaign card lands in the mailbox.

Pick a stock that reads official

A heavier stock gives an endorsement or fundraising card real presence in the hand. Everyday 14pt and 16pt gloss keeps a large mailing cheap, while 18pt, 24pt, and 26pt stocks feel substantial. Linen adds a textured, official weight, metallic pearl catches the light, and there are 30% and 100% recycled stocks for a campaign that runs on a green message. A High Gloss UV Coating makes a candidate photo snap. For a smaller keepsake format, the Mini Cards run the same quality in a pocket square.

Personalize every card to the voter

Turn on variable data and each postcard can carry a different voter name, address, precinct, or polling place while the design stays fixed. A card that names the voter's own polling location tells them where to go without a lookup site, and the voter sees their own name on the address side.

Design it without a designer

Start from a layout in our postcard design templates and swap in the candidate photo, the party colors and the office in the online editor. Place the paid for by band first, then fit the message and the photo into the space that is left.

If your consultant already built the art, download a press-ready blank instead. Each blank political postcard template is drawn at the real trim size with the 1/8" bleed and safe margin marked, so the disclaimer and the union bug stay clear of the cut. Pick the size that matches your order below, place your art and upload it.

How Much Do Political Postcards Cost

Political postcards start at $16.48 per set of 50, and the per-postcard price keeps dropping as the quantity climbs toward 100,000. A set of 800 runs $73.60, about 9 cents each, and 7,000 land at $176.61, roughly 2.5 cents each. Push to a district-wide 100,000 and the cost drops under 2 cents per card. Start from the count in your voter file after deduplication, set it on the slider below, and read the set total and the cost per card at that count.

Can You Print a Different Name on Each Postcard

Yes. Turn on variable data and you can drop a unique voter name, address, precinct, or one-off donation code onto every single card in the run, so each one ships personalized instead of identical. That turns a generic mailer into a card addressed to a real voter, with their own polling place or a QR link that goes straight to a donation page. Upload a spreadsheet with one row per recipient and the design stays fixed while the personalized fields change card to card. Free online proofs let you confirm the layout before the full run prints, so a whole mailing goes out right the first time.

Personalize every card to the voter

Variable data is what separates campaign mail from a flyer with an address on it. You supply the voter file as a spreadsheet, one row per record, with a column for every field you want printed, and the run merges those fields into the card so each piece comes off the press already personalized.

Merging the voter file. Export from your voter database into a clean sheet with consistent column headers and no merged cells, and standardize before you send: names in the case you want them printed in, no stray leading spaces, one column per line of the address. The most common failure is not the print, it is a file where a handful of rows are missing a field, so decide up front what prints when a field is empty and give those rows a fallback value rather than leaving a blank line on the card.

Household versus individual addressing. Individual addressing puts one name on one card and mails a card to every registered voter at an address, which is what you want for a persuasion message aimed at a specific voter or for tracking response by name. Household addressing collapses an address to a single piece, either to the family name or to a generic household line, which cuts the piece count and the postage sharply on a multi-voter address. Turnout mail is usually individual, because the ask is aimed at one person's record. Broad awareness mail is usually household. Deduplicate the file to the level you chose before printing, not after.

Precinct specific lines. The same variable data pass that prints a name can print a different polling place on each card. Add a column for the polling location, the address and the hours, keyed to each voter's precinct, and every card in the run tells its recipient where their own polling place is rather than pointing at a lookup site. The same technique carries a ward number, a ballot measure number, a district specific candidate line, or an early voting site that differs across the mailing.

Because all of this comes from your file, check the proof against the file itself, not just against the design: look at the first record, a record with a long name, and a record with an unusual address, since those three catch nearly every merge fault before 100,000 cards print.

How Do Political Postcards Compare to the Rest of the Range

A political postcard reaches the most voters for the least money per piece. If you are weighing a standard postcard, a foil-accented card or a pocket mini, the chart below sets the starting price of each close sibling beside this one.

Getting mail in hands before election day

Campaign mail has one deadline that does not move, so build the schedule backwards from election day rather than forwards from today. There are four blocks of time and only one of them is printing.

• In home window: the days between the mail drop and the card landing in the mailbox. This is the block campaigns underestimate. Confirm the window with the mail house for the class of mail you are using, and treat it as the real deadline your artwork is aiming at.
• Mail drop and preparation: the mail house needs the printed cards in hand before it can sort, address and induct them. Ask for their required lead time and add it above the in home window.
• Production and transit: 3 business days standard, plus carrier time to reach you or your mail house. The 2-day, Next-Day and Same-Day rush tiers shorten production, not the road.
• Artwork lock: the date after which nothing changes. Production does not start until you approve the proof, so a card approved late on a Friday can lose a full weekend, and a late disclaimer correction can cost more days than the printing itself.

Add those four together and count back from the day the card should be read, not the day polls close. For a turnout piece that has to arrive in the final week, that usually means locking artwork well before the last weekend of the campaign, with the voter file cleaned and deduplicated by the same date. If the schedule is tight, the piece to keep flexible is the design, not the file: a card can be simplified in an hour, but a voter file that arrives broken restarts the whole clock.

How Fast Can You Get Political Postcards Printed

Political postcards print on a 3 business day standard turnaround, and when a deadline moves up you can shift to 2-day, Next-Day, or even Same-Day production. Same-day orders need approval by the daily cutoff to ship that afternoon from our NYC plant, so a last-minute turnout push or a rapid-response mailer still lands on time. Across all orders, 99.8% arrive on time and 82% ship early, so you are not gambling on the date before an election. See exactly what each faster speed adds when you build your order.

See the Rest of Our Postcards

For campaign pieces beyond the mailer, open the full print product range. The cards below show each related postcard, from a standard mailer to a foil-accented card, with its starting price and a link to its page.

Print Your Political Postcards Today

At 4OVER4.COM, quality comes first, and it's backed by a satisfaction guarantee and 25+ years of printing since 1999. Whatever size, stock, or finish you pick, these political postcards are built to land in a mailbox and move a voter. Need them before a deadline or an election? Our Same-Day production keeps you covered. Print your political postcards today.

Political Postcard Printing and Mailing

Political postcards print here and ship to you, to the campaign office or straight to your mail house, and with variable data turned on the run comes off the press already personalized from your voter file. That covers the two ways campaign mail goes out. For a canvass or a lit drop, order the cards and hand them out at the door. For a mailing, the mail house sorts, addresses and inducts the printed cards, so plan its lead time on top of the 3 business day production and the transit. If you would rather have the printing and the mailing in one order, the Direct Mail Postcards are built to be printed and mailed to a list. The political card on this page is the one to pick when the artwork carries a disclaimer and a union bug and you control the mail drop yourself.