Ballot tracking in the United States
Ballot tracking is a tool voters and election officials use to track ballots sent to mail-in voters. Ballot tracking reports updates in the ballot's delivery and processing. This allows the voter to know when they will receive their ballot, if their ballot has been successfully delivered, and if their ballot has been successfully counted.
Methods
All states send ballots with unique numbers linked to the voter. US Postal Service scans this number and sends its status to the voter or third-party tracking service, depending on the state.[1][2]
All voters can choose to be notified by USPS's Informed Delivery Service to track delivery of their ballot to their address.[3]
Voters can then go to their state's tracking website where they enter personal information, like address, DOB to find the status of their ballot.
Some states, such as California, automatically send ballot status updates to all voters.[2]
Mailed ballots in 2020
As of Sept. 2020, 51 million US voters choose to have their ballot mailed, 49 million have their ballot application automatically mailed, 99 million can vote by mail, and 34 million can vote by mail for disabilities.[5][6]
In the 2020 elections, 65 million voters used mail in voting.[3]
Functions
Ballot Scout, Ballot TRACE, TrackMyVote, and BallotTrax all have online portals where users can type in their voter information to see the status of their ballot.
BallotTrax uses a notification system to notify their users by text and email when their ballot will be arriving.
Advantages
Ballot tracking helps under-staffed voting offices run smoother. Ballot tracking allows offices to expect and look out for lost ballots. Ballot tracking notifies users for improperly filled-out ballots.[2]
Services
BallotTrax
BallotTrax (ballottrax.com) was developed by Denver based development company i3Logix. As of August 2020, their websites boasts BallotTrax as "The World's First Complete Mail Ballot Locator & Notification System". States such as North Carolina and California have begun using BallotTrax to notify voters of their ballot status.[7][8]
BallotTrax grew 10x in 2020.[2]
As of 2020, BallotTrax is the largest ballot tracking service.[2]
BallotTrax was used by 25 states in the 2020 election. It is estimated they have helped track 60 million ballots since 2009.[3]
Ballot TRACE
Changes in Colorado law caused an increase in voters who chose to vote by mail in the November 3, 2009 election. This prompted Colorado to create a simple version of a ballot tracking service which allowed voters to look up their ballot and see if their local county election official had received it.[9]
They entered into a partnership with i3Logix,[10] along with the USPS to create a system named i3Ballot, which was renamed to the more friendly, recognizable Ballot TRACE.[9]
TrackMyVote
Hosted by trackmymail.com,[9] TrackMyVote is an Absentee Ballot Tracking service with which, you can track your ballot to and from the voting official's office to add accountability in the vote-by-mail process.[8]
Ballot Scout
Created by non-profit Democracy Works their website democracy.works/ballot-scout claims to help USPS use intelligent mail barcodes to absentee ballots. With this and their notification network, they give voters and officials updates on their ballot's status.[11][12]
References
- Campisi, Jessica (October 2, 2020). "How to track your mail-in ballot". CNN. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- Fowler, Geoffrey A. "Review | How to track your ballot like a UPS package". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
- Panetta, Grace. "How to track your mail-in ballot at every step and make sure it's counted in November". Business Insider. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
- Conner, Katie (November 4, 2020). "Over 69 million people have voted by mail. Here's how you can track your ballot online". CNET. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- Jenny Blessing, Julian Gomez, McCoy Patino, Tran Nguyen (2020). "Security Survey and Analysis of Vote-by-Mail Systems". arXiv:2005.08427 [cs.CY].
{{cite arXiv}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Rabinowitz, Kate; Mayes, Brittany Renee (September 25, 2020). "Vote by mail: Which states allow absentee voting". Washington Post. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- "Where's My Ballot? :: California Secretary of State". www.sos.ca.gov. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- "TrackMyMail – Products". www.trackmymail.com. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- Scarpello, Michael J. "2010 Professional Practices Program; Ballot TRACE; City and County of Denver, Colorado" (PDF). Election Center. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 26, 2013.
- Kenney, Andrew (September 14, 2020). "Colorado Now Offers Automatic Ballot Tracking For Every Voter". Colorado Public Radio. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- "Ballot Scout". Democracy Works. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
- "Delta Township, MI". www.deltami.gov. Retrieved October 28, 2020.