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A few days later, the National Association of Presort Mailers held a teleconference for vendors across the country that are in the niche business of printing and packaging bulk mail, including mail-in ballots.

“For example, the machine that folds and inserts the ballot into the envelope can cost up to $1 million,” Richard Gebbie, chief executive of Midwest Presort Mailing Services and president of the national association, told me.

MIT researchers suggest robots could someday presort recyclables before curbside pickup—but it is unclear who would pay to install such robots, even if the technology matures.

My narrative — a dude, but rich — doesn’t let me presort news, so I have to do the work of figuring out what’s going on fresh every single time a story breaks.

"I didn't think there would that many," said Mat Presort, who spent more than $3,000 to fly from Florida for the U.S. team's World Cup opener in Natal last week.