Scan Ballot By Mail Returned Envelopes

Mail ballot envelopes include a section for the voter’s signature and a specific bar code that identifies the election. Texas law requires that the Signature Verification Committee (SVC) compare the signature images(s) from the voter’s record to the signature on the voter’s mail ballot return envelope. With Voter Focus, you scan the ABBM and scan the returned envelope. After the ABBM and envelope images have been indexed to the voter for an election, the committee members compare the signatures from the two side by side using the Return Ballots Queue.

Go to Ballot By Mail > Scan Return Envelopes to open the Return Ballots Batches dialog. This dialog allows you to scan or import mail ballot returned envelopes, and then review and release the images for verification.

When images are successfully released to the Return Ballots Queue (marked as received), the associated voters can be listed in the Received Ballots Voter List report. This report lists all voters with ballots that are recorded as received but not yet processed as accepted or rejected for the focused election.

  1. On the Return Ballots Batches dialog, click New to create a new batch. Batches are used to group similar or related images. The Batch Info dialog displays.
  2. Enter unique box and batch descriptions to assign the organizational structure for the batch and, if needed to associate with the batch, a comment.
  3. Click Save.
    4. Tip: For your future reference, the box and batch numbers as well as the assigned sequence number display on the Doc Images tab in voter records for images that were created in a batch.
  4. On the Return Ballots Batches dialog, select your new batch and click View. The Batch Images dialog displays.
  5. Do one or both of the following:
    • Scan
      1. Verify that a scanner machine is connected to your computer and is turned on. Some scanners must be turned on before the computer is turned on, so if you have problems connecting to the scanner, power down both machines. Then power-up the scanner first, before you power-up the computer.
      2. Place the batch of forms into the scanner infeed with the top of each document going into the scanner first. You will be able to rotate an improperly oriented image later if you need to, but it saves time if all documents are facing the same way.
      3. When scanning a two-sided or multi-page document, verify the first page scanned contains the signature. This allows you to clip the signature from the first page in the batch so the system will display the signature with the correct page on the Comms tab in voter records.
      4. Click Scan.
      5. Select one or more envelopes for the batch from the Source dialog and click Select.
        6. Tip: For possible future reference, bundle the scanned paper documents from this batch in the same order as they were scanned.
    • Import
      1. Click Import.
      2. Select the folder on your machine containing the scanned image files for the batch and click Select Folder.
        3. Note: If you receive an error advising you the image is too large, see Image File Size for ways you can reduce the size.
        Tip: Verify all images and only the images you want to import are located in one folder. Import adds all images in the folder you select.

    All images from the scan, import, or both are included in the batch.

    Note: The system uses only the county's election bar code and not those from other entities, such as the post office.
  6. Verify all images in the batch are clear and legible. Use the Prior and Next buttons on the Batch Images dialog to navigate if there are multiple images.
    7. Important:
    • Verify all images are clear and legible before releasing them to the Return Ballots Queue. Click Delete to remove unacceptable images, and then import or scan replacement images.
    • Verify the image files you are importing or have scanned are not set as read-only. This setting will cause an error when attempting to delete a batch or an image in Voter Focus.
  1. On the Return Ballots Batches dialog, you can use the following to locate the row containing the batch to review:

    • The filters above the grid to narrow the items that are listed.
    • The arrows at the bottom of the dialog to navigate between pages.

  2. Double-click the row or select the row and click View. The Batch Images dialog displays.
  3. Verify all images in the batch are clear and legible. Use the Prior and Next buttons on the Batch Images dialog to navigate if there are multiple images.
Tip: Click Delete to remove unacceptable images, and then import or scan replacement images.
  1. After verifying all images in the batch are legible, on the Return Ballots Batches dialog, locate the row containing the batch to release.
  2. Select the row and click Release.
  3. Set the date the ballot was returned.
  4. Set the clip code for the document type.
  5. Click Continue. The Validation Results dialog displays the following color coding:
    • Green rows—The bar code image is validated and can be indexed to a voter based on the envelope bar code.
    • Yellow rows—
      • A bar code could not be located or is unreadable due to poor image quality or a physical tear or flaw.
      • No absentee ballot was found for the bar code.
      • The bar code values contained in the image match multiple ballot bar codes.
      • The ballot bar code value contained in the image appears multiple times in this batch.
    • Red rows—The clip code does not fit the image size.

  6. Do the following:
    • Green rows—Click Continue to index the images to the voter's record for an election and send the images to the Returned Ballots Queue. From this queue, the SVC can compare the signatures from the voter's record and return envelope side by side to confirm the voter's identity.

      • To show the ballot was processed as received, the Ballot Received column on the voter's Ballot By Mail tab in Voter Maintenance is updated to YES for the election.

    • Yellow rows—Either go back to the Return Ballots Batches dialog to re-scan or re-import the images or click Continue to send the images to the Bad Envelope Image Queue. From this queue, you can manually associate an image to an election and a ballot, which also indexes that image to a voter.
    • Red rows—If a red row is listed, regardless if there are green or yellow rows, the Continue button is disabled. Go back to the Return Ballots Batches dialog to delete duplicate bar code images or research the bar code and ballot association.
  1. On the Return Ballots Batches dialog, locate the row containing the batch to edit.
  2. Select a batch and click Edit. The Batch Info dialog displays.
  3. Change the box description, the batch description, or the comment.
  4. Click Save.