Handle Ballots Delivered by Email

This topic explains how to process a mail ballot delivered to UOCAVA and absentee voters via email, from the initial request through return of the voted ballot.

1—Record the Mail Ballot Requests

Typically, requests for email delivery come from UOCAVA voters who have made FPCA or all-elections requests. You can also record a single-election request for an email delivery, provided that the request comes from a UOCAVA voter or their representative.

To record an FPCA or all-elections request for email delivery:

FPCA requests—Follow the instructions in How to Process a Mail Ballot Request from an FPCA Applicant.

All-elections requests—Follow the instructions in How to Process a Mail-Ballot Request for All Elections.

For both types of requests, when you are filling out the Request All Elections dialog, choose Email in the Default Delivery Method field. Then enter the voter's email address in the E-mail field on the voter's Vote-By-Mailtab.

If an FPCA or all-elections request was recorded recently, those voters are likely to already have a request for the election. But if an election was created after an FPCA or all-elections request was recorded, voters making those requests will not have a request created until the following day, after the scheduled daily run of the AbsenteeGenerateRequests program. (This background task runs about 5 am unless your county has rescheduled its run time.) To create these voters' requests for this election immediately, go to Vote By Mail > Vote-By-Mail Generate Requests. For more information, see Generate Vote-By-Mail Requests for All-Elections and FPCA Voters.

To record a one-time mail ballot request for email delivery:

Go to VOTER REGISTRATION > Voter Maintenance and find the voter's record.

On the record's Maint tab, verify that the voter's status is either Active (there are several Active statuses) or Inactive. Also verify that the green box in the lower-left corner of the Maint tab says Overseas, Military, or Military Dependent. If not, the voter is not eligible to receive their ballot by email.

Note: If the voter is not a UOCAVA voter and therefore not eligible to receive an email ballot, the system will still allow you to request delivery by email (as described below in step 5). However, when you do the Email run in Vote By Mail > Deliver Ballots, the voter will be included in the list of voters who were not provided ballots (at the bottom of the Ordered List of Absentee Labels report), because they are not eligible for email delivery. To fix this, go to the Vote-By-Mailtab in the voter's record, click Mail Ballot Adjustments, and change the Delivery Method field to Mail. The voter will appear in the next absentee run for mailings.

Display the Vote-By-Mail tab and click New Request.

On the Vote-By-Mail Request dialog, highlight the election.

In the How Requested field, select any value other than Pick-up, 3rdParty, or FWAB.

In the Requested Delivery field, select Email Delivery.

If you want to print an Absentee Request Information Sheet to your default printer, click Save and Print. If you don't want the sheet, just click OK to save the request. If the voter's email address hasn't been entered yet, you'll see a message to that effect. Just click Yes to continue.

On the voter's Vote-By-Mail tab, enter their email address in the E-Mail field.

The email address will appear on reports listing voters who have requested ballots delivered by email.

2—Email the Ballots to Voters

My county uses the Email run to email ballots to all voters found by the run.

2a Set Up the Automatic Emailing of Ballots

2b Use the Email Run to Email Ballots to Voters

My county uses the Email run to update voter records to Delivered but we email ballots manually (one-by-one) to voters found by the Email run.

Find Email Voters, Record Delivery, and Email Ballots Manually

I just need to email a ballot to an individual voter...I'm not doing an Email run.

Email a Ballot to an Individual Voter

Note: Before doing an Email run, we recommend you read Verify the Success of Outgoing Emails.

3—Record the Ballots Received from Voters

From the Voter Focus standpoint, ballots delivered by fax and then voted and returned—regardless of the method of return (mail, fax, or email)—are processed like any other returned ballot. Your county might have special procedures for handling these ballots, but the return processing through Voter Focus is the same as for ballots mailed out in the conventional way. See Record the Return of Mail Ballots for instructions.

Keep in mind that although absent domestic military voters are eligible to receive their ballots by email, they must return their ballots by mail. Returns from these voters by email/fax is not permitted under Florida law.

Note: Note for Relia-Vote Counties Mail ballots that were emailed to UOCAVA voters cannot be returned through the Relia-Vote system, regardless of the method by which they were returned (by email, fax, or regular mail). These ballots also must be return-processed as described in Record the Return of Mail Ballots. Voter Focus does not send their return disposition to Relia-Vote, because Relia-Vote has no record of these emailed ballots being sent out.