Mail Tracking Brings Confidence and Integrity to Vote-By-Mail

From the Official Mail Guide Vote-By-Mail 2024 Guide:

By Dave Lewis, President, SnailWorks

Vote-by-mail is growing and tracking it is essential. In this article I will tell you:

⦁ Why tracking mail is essential for ballot mail
⦁ How to leverage available Postal Service tools for mail tracking
⦁ How to maintain ballot control through mail tracking
⦁ How to build voter confidence through mail tracking
⦁ How to validate incoming ballots through mail tracking

Vote-by-mail has become common practice across the country, and finding tools to maintain its integrity is critical. Public perception is just as important. In most jurisdictions, tracking ballot mail is a requirement, and voters demand it.

There is a public perception that once voters mail their ballots, they disappear until they reach the voting site. This raises security concerns including potential tampering or fraud because ballots are seemingly out of sight. Whether these concerns are justified or not, this perception reduces the public’s confidence in the integrity of elections. Fortunately, ballots are actually quite traceable as they move through the Postal Service, and this tracking information can be readily shared with voters.

RELATED: Learn more about Snailworks – click here
Learn more about Visible Ballot at 855-697-6245, ext. 1016.

The Postal Service provides excellent tracking capabilities with its Informed Visibility® program. Tracking involves assigning a unique Intelligent Mail barcode (IMb) to every piece of mail, and as that barcode passes through sorting equipment, the location, time, and process for that mail piece can be shared with the mailer.

But it is a complex program, and even the largest mailers in the country turn to mail tracking services to support them. Working with raw Informed Visibility scan data is rarely a viable option for election administrators.

Visible Ballot™ from SnailWorks Makes You – and Your Voters – Secure

Visible Ballot allows you greater control by placing a trackable IMb on every ballot you mail to a voter, and a separate IMb that tracks the ballot back to you from the voter. As the election administrator, you will have a clear view of each ballot as it travels through the postal system. Reports show the overall movement of mail allowing for transparency with voters, right down to the tracking of individual ballots. You can get lists of who has not received a ballot or validate if a ballot has been delivered when a voter makes an inquiry.

Better still, Visible Ballot creates a unique and secure web page for every voter where they can track the progress of their mail-in ballot. It is quite easy to understand, and personal and private voter data is not needed to offer it. Election after election, voters have thanked their officials for keeping them informed by their utilization of Visible Ballot.

Ballots that come in after election day can be validated by scanning the barcode on the inbound ballot. The Visible Ballot system will show you the travel history of the piece and make sure that every valid vote is counted.

A Solution for Every Jurisdiction

Visible Ballot has helped to track ballots for some of the largest – and smallest – cities in the nation.
For larger jurisdictions, we work directly with their mail service providers to ensure the correct barcodes are assigned to each outbound and inbound ballot – and they are extremely easy for providers to apply. The real work is done by the mail service provider and SnailWorks – the jurisdiction just enjoys notices and reports.
For smaller jurisdictions doing their vote-by-mail or absentee ballots in-house, peel-and-stick barcode labels are available for the outgoing ballot to the voter and the return envelope.

Visibility to the Voter

Sharing tracking information with the voter requires providing the voter a link to their custom web page with tracking information. Some jurisdictions do this on their own through email or text. Others let SnailWorks take care of it for them. Either way, it’s an easy process, and your voters will love it.

Vote-By-Mail is Here to Stay

There is little doubt that vote-by-mail will continue to grow in coming elections. Election officials will be challenged to provide this option to voters. Tracking that mail and ensuring the integrity of the mail-in ballots has never been easier than with Informed Visibility from the Postal Service, and Visible Ballot from SnailWorks.

Learn more about Visible Ballot by calling 855-697-6245, ext. 1016. Or, click here for SnailWorks.