Mail Ballot Request Service

Using MBRS, voters are guided through the process of providing the information required to request a mail ballot. As the requester moves through the request service, page content dynamically changes, depending on the options selected, to provide an easy, streamlined experience. Requesters only see questions and messages that are applicable to their individual situation. They can also select their preferred language, and site content will be translated using Google Translator.

In addition, you can customize the introductory text that appears on many of the MBRS pages so that you can display messages and instructions specific to your county's processes.

Using this service, an eligible voter or an immediate family member or legal guardian of the voter can request a mail ballot for another person.

By providing specific search criteria, a requester can quickly locate the voter's record and move through the service to submit a vote-by-mail request for elections the voter is eligible to participate in. Mail ballot requests can only be made for voters who can be validated as registered voters in your county. They can also see the status of any existing vote-by-mail requests for these elections.

Based on the voter's classification (U.S. citizen-non-military, active duty military or Merchant Marine, or a dependent or spouse of someone who is active military), which is specified by the requester during the process, the requester can choose from a number of delivery address options, including entering a new address and choosing delivery by fax or email.

The delivery address is specified on a per-election basis. Using this process, the requester can easily choose different delivery addresses for different elections.

If the voter is classified as a U.S. Citizen-non-miliatry and chooses to have the mail ballot delivered to a new address that is not currently on file with FVRS, the Mail Ballot Request Service validates the provided address and, per Florida statues, presents the requester with an affidavit, pre-populated with the information they provided through MBRS, to print, sign, and send to your office. You can customize the text that appears in this affidavit, using text placeholders to personalize the form, to suit your county's needs.

MBRS is protected against automated scanning or abuse by Google's reCAPTCH technology.

After the request is submitted, all of the information gathered is then included in the request sent to your voter registration system (to the Web Vote-by-Mail Request Queue in Voter Focus) and to your office, where you can process the request.

You can configure the Mail Ballot Request Service to send an email with the request details to email addresses in your office as well.

The voter will also receive a confirmation email with the details of the request for their records or an email copy of the affidavit if required. You can customize this email message and use text placeholders to control what information is sent to the voter.

To setup MBRS, complete the following steps:

• Add the MBRS module to your website.
• Optionally - Specify Email Recipient(s) for Mail Ballot Requests.
• Optionally - Customize Mail Ballot Request Service for Your County.

You do not have to make any changes to prevent users from requesting ballots after the deadline. This happens automatically.

If the requester is an immediate family member or legal guardian of the voter, the person completing the form must provide their full name, relationship to the voter, address, and last four digits of their SSN or full driver's license/state ID number, as required by Florida statutes. The requester is then prompted to provide current contact information for the voter so that you can contact the voter if you need clarification on any information provided.

The identifying information of the requester is sent to Voter Focus where it can be viewed or edited in the voter's record (Vote By Mail tab > Mail-Ballot Adjustments > Maintain Requester Information).