The franking privilege is a perk which grants an elected official the right to send mail through the postal system for free, often simply by signing his or her name where the postage stamp would normally be placed. Employee benefits (also called fringe benefits, perquisites, or perks) are various non-wage compensations provided to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries. ... Postbox redirects here. ... A selection of Hong Kong postal stamps A postage stamp is evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services. ...

In theory, elected officials and the postal service are both paid for by the taxpayer. The postal service represents a fixed cost - that is, adding the official's mail to the existing mailstream does not change the postal system's total costs. The franking privilege allows elected officials to send official mail without creating accounting transactions that, at the total government level, will cancel each other out. A tax is an involuntary fee paid by individuals or businesses to a government. ... Fixed costs are expenses whose total does not change in proportion to the activity of a business. ... Accountancy (British English) or accounting (American English) is the process of maintaining, auditing, and processing financial information for business purposes. ...

In practice, the franking privilege is applied to more than just the official mail necessary for the conduct of the office. Franking is one of the largest advantages of incumbency, contributing to a very high reelection rate in the U.S. legislative branch. // In politics The incumbent, in politics, is the current holder of a political office. ... Reelection is when someone runs for election after already being elected once, and already having served out their first term. ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...

In the United States, members of the House and Senate are allowed this privilege. The chamber of the United States House of Representatives is located in the south wing of the Capitol building, in Washington, D.C.. This photograph shows a rare glimpse of the four vote tallying boards (the blackish squares across the top), which display each members name and vote as... Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ...

Franking can be automated using an autopen. An Autopen is a machine used to create fake autographs. ...