Process an In-Office or Pickup Absentee Ballot—Early/Counter Voting

The election status must be Active or Return Processing Only in order to issue absentee ballots. Once an election is in Active or Return Processing Only status, in-office and pickup absentee ballot materials can be given to voters through election day.

Note: Some counties close in-office and/or pickup absentee functions once early voting begins.

You can use either the Counter program or the Vote-By-Mail tab in the voter's record to record in-office ballots and pickups.

The Counter program allows temporary staff to process ballots quickly and accurately. When you start Counter, it opens on the default election, but if that isn't the election you want, you can change the election after you access a voter's record.

  1. Go to the EARLY VOTING > Early/Counter Voting.
  2. In the Current Voting Location field, select your location and click OK. (This field actually applies only to early voting, not to voting by mail, but you should select it in case you process any early votes for other elections during your Counter session.)
  3. On the Find a Voter dialog, do a local search for the voter by name or registration number.
  4. On the Choose an Election dialog, select the election for which you want to process the mail ballot and click OK.
  5. On the Voting Election dialog, check the message box on the left side of the dialog for messages indicating that the voter might not be eligible to vote. Verify the voter's residence address, political party affiliation, date of birth, and signature (if a signature clip appears in the record).
  6. If the voter says their residence address has changed, click Address Change and enter the new address information on the Voter New Address dialog. Any change to the residence address change must be entered prior to delivery of the mail ballot because the address change might affect the voter's precinct and ballot style. You can also modify the voter's mailing address and toggle their military/civilian status here, if they provide you with an update to this information.
  7. On the Choose an Election dialog, verify that the election for which you want to process the ballot is selected and click OK. The Choose an Election dialog displays again because a change the voter's address might change their eligibility to vote in the election as well at their ballot style.

If the voter is not permitted to Vote-By-Mail because of the address change, the reason will be noted in large type in the message box. If this happens, explain the situation to the voter and process their vote as a provisional ballot.

  1. If the voter is a MARG voter , you will see a note to that effect in the message box. Check the voter's photo ID and then select a value in the Type of ID Provided field.

If the MARG voter has no valid ID, they can still be given an absentee ballot, but they must show a photo ID before 7 pm on election day; otherwise their ballot must be referred.

  1. In the Voting Method box, select:
    • Pickup - Self if the voter says they want to take the ballot out of the office.
    • Pickup - Other if someone other than the voter is picking up the ballot for them.
    • Office Absentee if the voter has indicated they want to vote the ballot before leaving your office and leave the voted ballot with you.
Note: Some counties prefer to select Pickup for all mail ballots delivered in person to the voter, in case the voter later decides to take the ballot out of the Supervisor of Elections's office.
  1. If your county uses ballot numbers for mail ballots, enter the ballot number in the Ballot Number field.
  2. Click OK to complete processing of the mail ballot. If Voter Focus has been configured to print labels, one or more labels will print, and you should affix them to the ballot materials in accordance with your office's procedures.

If you are using a ballot printer, the ballot will print. Should the ballot be spoiled, see Handle Spoiled Ballots Printed at Voting Sites for instructions.

  1. Give the ballot materials to the voter.

Although the handing of in-office vs. pickup ballots similar, there are some significant differences:

In-office—After voting the ballot in the elections office, the voter places it into the secrecy envelope, places the secrecy envelope into a return envelope, signs the oath on the back of the return envelope, and gives the envelope to you. You then store the envelope with the other mail ballots awaiting tabulation. There is no need to return process the ballot in the Return Ballots program:  by recording the ballot as an in-office vote, you are automatically recording it as returned.

Pickup—After receiving the ballot and taking it away from the elections office, the voter votes the ballot, places it into the secrecy envelope, places the secrecy envelope into a return envelope, signs the oath on the back of the return envelope, and either mails or hand delivers the ballot package to the elections office. Upon receipt of the ballot package, you use the Return Ballots program to process the return, and then handle the returned ballot in accordance with your office's procedures.