Before Next Election, Automate Your Absentee Ballot Process

Last year we experienced a colossal shift in voter behavior. Turnout was at a record high with a 160 million people casting ballots. According to Pew Research, 54% of voters say they voted in person in November, compared to 46% who voted by mail, reflecting an incredible surge in enthusiasm for absentee or mail-in voting options.

If the thought of addressing more mail-in ballots before the next primary keeps you up at night, then you should consider the advances made in automation technology and how they can help you run a more successful next election. Here are five reasons automation technology should be used to transform your process and mail-in ballots:

Automation tackles the influx of mail-in voting with ease, and provides peace of mind!

Automation technology is the key to handling the unprecedented increases in vote by mail requests. Automation eliminates the enormity of vote-by-mail tasks by reducing manual processing. Many states, like New York, are currently reforming their processes to handle absentee ballots. In 2020, its tabulation system was designed to only handle 4 percent of the vote. Automation can also be used earlier in the process to prepare and deliver outbound mail ballots or validate voter addresses, weeks or months before ballots are even returned and tabulated.

Automation reduces or eliminates repetitive, menial tasks that take up too much time.

Report those results quicker and handle the election day surge with ease. Election night 2020 looked and sounded a lot different than prior elections. There were a lot of questions about how much information was available to report, mostly due to the high number of vote-by-mail ballots. Many election offices can attest to the pain of sorting mail-in ballots to the election district level. Automation can address the slow, more tedious tasks that tend to cause backups in your process, allowing you and your team the time to focus on more important matters, like managing your teams and handling communications.

Automation is affordable at scale.

Our U.S. election process is highly decentralized across states and even districts, so a one-size-fits-all approach won’t always work. There are many products and solutions that can automate the entire process or just enhance a single part of the process. You don’t need to worry about securing the funds to purchase an entire system to make a move to automation worthwhile–there are options that can be designed for your local needs! You can even have a vote-by-mail expert visit with you and your team to assess the gaps in your process and help design a better, more secure workflow. Doing so will help you deal with additional mail-in ballots as well as addressing the long lines associated with in-person voters.

Automation provides accountability.

When it’s time to evaluate your current system, it’s important to know that automation can provide some key benefits: a scanned image of ballots, time stamps, bin numbers and barcodes for reporting and audit trails. Relying on technology can confirm ballot validity, image and archive every ballot envelope image and out sort envelopes that are missing signatures. Even if you need to complete a hand count, software can help you with Voter-Verified (or Verifiable) Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).

Automation means enfranchising eligible voters.

An analysis of the 2020 election has determined that an all-mail voting format is a major stimulus to voter participation, second only to the impact of a presidential race. Making voting easier will encourage higher participation, and has been observed to provide a greater enthusiasm to get involved in low stimulus elections such as local elections or primaries.
Position yourself and your team for success before the next election and consider the benefits of upgrading your manual processes using automation. With more affordable options available for any scale of operation, you can get ahead of the curve by auditing your process!

— From Quadient (formerly Neopost). Quadient helps elections officials build successful vote-by-mail systems and workflows quickly. With more than 90+ years’ experience in the mail industry, Quadient offers a dedicated team of vote-by-mail experts in over 200 locations across the country ready to help.

For more information, click here or call 877.888.0677 to contact a vote-by-mail expert.