Tired of being inundated with campaign mailers? Here's how to stop them

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The return of election season means the comeback of a common mailbox nuisance — campaign mailers.

Just under two weeks until the final day of voting, candidates have been flooding the mailboxes of registered voters with all kinds of advertisements in hopes of reaching people before they make their way to the ballot box.

Some voters might actually give these mailers a read, while others might just dump them right in the recycling bin without a second look.

Regardless of whether these fliers end up actually informing one's vote, most are probably already wondering if it is possible to stop the mailers from arriving ahead of Election Day. Well, there are a couple of ways.

The easiest way to bring the flood of campaign mailers to a screeching halt is to take advantage of early voting opportunities. This is largely because campaigns use information from counties' registered voter databases to find and reach the types of voters their candidate needs to win.

Details like names, addresses, political affiliation and frequency of voting are all included in these data sets used by campaigns, whether or not a voter opts in to receive the information.

When a ballot gets returned and recorded early, the data vendors who provide this information to campaigns and pollsters essentially cross them off the list — they do not need to spend money on communicating with this voter anymore since their vote has already been made.

This is considered the only surefire way to stop political mailers, although there is often a bit of a delay between casting one's vote and when a county's vote records are updated.

If there is a delay or a voter wants to stop the mailers before you hit the polls, most campaigns will be able to remove a person from their mailing list if they reach out to them directly. This can be found on campaign websites.

The final day for registered voters to cast a ballot in this year's election is Nov. 5. Californians not already registered can still participate up until Election Day by casting a provisional ballot at an in-person polling station.

FOX 5/KUSI is following the results of the Nov. 5 election. Check back for real-time updates.