Last Updated: 12/12/2023

Verify the Success of Outgoing Emails

Note: This topic pertains only to emails sent out in batches, such as the absentee ballot email run. It does not apply to single emails sent from voter or election worker records.

Emails sent from Voter Focus pass through several "checkpoints" on their journey to recipients. At each checkpoint, it's possible for issues to arise that prevent an email from going further. To ensure that every email reaches its intended recipient, it's important to monitor the checkpoints for indications that an email might have failed. The table here describes each checkpoint and how to determine if there's a problem.

Important: To keep track of your outgoing emails, we strongly recommend you print or save the list of recipients generated with every batch email run. With this report in hand, it will be much easier to identify any recipients whose email failed to reach them and take remediable action to ensure they get what they need.

	Checkpoints in Outgoing Email's Journey	What Might Go Wrong	How to Monitor This Checkpoint
1	Insertion of email in database queue to await transmission by the EmailSender program. (Comms and Audit entries are made in voter records.)	Errors are unlikely at this point.	Double-click the outgoing email entry on the voter's Comms tab if you want to check the email's status.
2	Transmission of email by EmailSender to the county SMTP server for sending outside the county system.	VRScheduler not running, so EmailSender can't be run. Emails remain in database queue.	Check VR Dashboard under Programs to confirm EmailSender is running. Check inbox of CC address to verify emails went out. (CC address must be external to county system, e.g., Gmail). When VRScheduler is running again, resend the emails.
		SMTP login error, connection failure, or server failure	Check VR Dashboard under Failures for an Email Failure notice. Click Details to openEmail Monitor with more about problem. After the cause of the failure has been addressed, see Resend an Email that Failed to Go Out.
		The email has attachments but EmailSender cannot find them. This error is possible when emailing ballots and lists of candidates, both of which use attachments.	Check VR Dashboard under Failures for an Email Failure notice. Click Details to open Email Monitor with more about problem. Verify that the attachments are located in the prescribed location under the proper file name. Check the inbox of the email CC address to verify the email went out with the attachment(s) to each recipient.
3	Acceptance of email by recipient's email server.	Address unknown or other failure to find recipient address.	Check inbox of Reply To address for any emails that failed to be delivered to recipient. For emails that failed to send, contact voter to confirm their email address. If the email address changed, enter the new address in the Resend an Email dialog and resend. (See How to Resend an Email that Failed to Go Out for instructions.)

Typically, EmailSender runs every five minutes. It attempts a single send for each email in the queue (up to a maximum of 1000 emails at a time). If an email fails, EmailSender will retry sending the email the next time it runs. Should the retry fail, EmailSender will mark the email as failed and an error message will be displayed in the Send Error field on the Resend an Email dialog.

Persons responsible for emailing batches of messages to voters—such as absentee notifications or list of candidates—should be set up to receive an email alert should a problems with the EmailSender program prevent the messages from being sent. (See Alerts Maintenance for more about maintaining alerts.)

Emails are sent in batches from these programs: