Ballot Tracking Innovations at SnailWorks
July 22, 2020   Dave Lewis

It is becoming clearer and clearer that mail is going to be an essential component of the upcoming election.  We think most states will fall into one of these categories:

• Vote-By-Mail – Ballots mailed to every voter automatically
• Absentee Ballot – No reason required, or with a reason required

Vote-By-Mail will require at least one really big mailing in each state – there are currently five states doing that.  Those states are generally experienced and have pretty well planned what they are going to do.  So, Oregon, Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, and Utah are pretty much off the table for new business development this year.  We don’t expect more states to move to pure VBM this year, but there are a lot of things we didn’t expect this year. Absentee voting is a more intriguing solution.  In some states, absentee ballot requests forms may be mailed to every registered voter.  The voter needs to mail their request in, and the state, or local voting officials, will mail them a ballot.  In other states, they may request a ballot online or in person.  Then the voter needs to mail that ballot back in or, in some cases, drop it off with election officials.  What could go wrong? Well, a lot really.  That’s a lot of mail back and forth.  SnailWorks can’t resolve all of the challenges with voting through the mail, but we’ve been helping a lot by confirming that voters are getting the materials that they need, and confirming that their ballots were mailed back on time to be counted.  For mail service providers, this gives election authorities more confidence in dealing with you – you can prove that you are meeting their requirements. We call this product Visible Ballot™, because that’s what it is – it makes the ballot visible as it travels through the Postal Service.  Visible Ballot is great for mail service providers for a few reasons:

• It’s proven. We’re tracking ballots in multiple states, and have helped in some of the country’s biggest cities;
• It’s easy. You tell us how many ballots are being mailed (guess high) and we’ll provide IMb values for your outbound and inbound mailings.  You print the IMb’s and mail it – we do the rest.  We can even include an encrypted URL for voters to look at their own ballot;
• It’s flexible. You can track just ballots being mailed out, just track ballots being mailed back, track both ways, track the round trip – we support every combination that matches your capabilities and voting officials’ needs;
• It’s secure. We employ state of the art encryption and security every step of the way.  And you can share as much or as little information as you like, from full voter data, to just voter ID, to nothing – there is no data upload required.
• Visible Ballot™ is affordable. We’ve created a pricing plan that works for even the smallest election districts.

The election is only a few months away, but election officials have only begun to grasp the logistical challenges.  As a mailing service, you can help meet that need, and with Visible Ballot from SnailWorks you can better serve your customers’ needs as well as your own. Contact us to learn more about Visible Ballot and all of our services!

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