When a handwritten adddressed mailpiece is unable to be read by the OCR software a flourescent barcode is appplied to the back of the envelope. In fact most all envelopes have these tiny little red bars on them. This code is a tag number that is associated with the image or picture of the address that the camera took. The mailpiece will go into a temporary reject bin on the sorter and will be run through the sorter again once a human being sitting at a computer terminal viewing address images that could not be read by the OCR, types into the keyboard the critical elements like street number, street, town, state, and Zip code. Then when the mail piece is re-run through the sorter it reads the barcode on the back associates the derived 11-digit barcode and the mailpiece is barcoded and sorted.
Many times the software can actually read some handwritten pieces and the termnal operator never needs to type more than a few characters into the keyboard. Software that reads handwritten addresses has gotten better and better over the years whereas today very few pieces need human intervention. To answer your question your mail will not be slowed down because it is handwritten, since the process happens so quickly even when hand keying is needed. The USPS has multiple centers setup around the country, with hundreds of people in these facilities keying.
Maybe more than you want to know, but the current barcodes are called Postnet barcodes, and as I said they contain the 11-digits. Starting early next year all barcodes will be IMB codes, or Intelligent Mail Bar codes. These codes will contain not only the 11-digits but the sender's address in the form of a mailer assigned code, plus other information that helps track the mailpiece.
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