Create a Mail Ballot Export File for an External Printer or Mail Balloting System

To prepare mail ballot packages, counties often use the services of a commercial printing house or an in-house third-party mail balloting system such as ES&S VoteRemote™. If your county takes this approach, you can use Voter Focus to create export files containing the mail ballot data. Mail ballot export files are specially formatted so that printers can use them to prepare mail ballot packages. All you have to do is deliver the files to the printer or in-house mail balloting system.

For a description of the contents of the mail ballot export file, see Layout of the Mail-Ballot Export File.

The export file capability is divided into separate batches—called run types—described here. Each run type typically has its own requirements for envelope preparation and the items inserted in the package, so you should create a separate export file for each run type. You should process each run type every time you prepare files for the external/in-house printer.

Note: If you are creating export files for advance ballots, only the following run types are needed, but be aware that advance ballots are only used in rare circumstances.
OverseasMilitary
Overseas Civilian
Absent Domestic Military
Email
Fax

Each export file run type reevaluates voters' current registration status, party, and precinct to determine their eligibility and ballot style. This ensures that a voter who makes a mail ballot request and then moves to another precinct or party prior to the run will receive the ballot for their new precinct/party. Voters who move out of county after making a request, or who has become ineligible for another reason, will be included in the Absentee Requests not provided Ballots list in the report produced by the run.

Prior to the assignment of ballot styles to precincts (and designation of the federal election style for Fed Elections Only voters), voters who make a mail ballot request for the election will have XXX in the Style column on the Vote-By-Mail tab of their record. The reevaluation by the run will also examine these voters and replace the XXX placeholders of eligible voters with the appropriate ballot styles.

The creation of the mail ballot export file causes an update to each voter record indicating that a ballot for the election has been delivered. You should be aware that reversing the update requires making a manual adjustment to each voter's record, so do not perform this run until you are certain you are doing so at the appropriate time.

  1. On the Vote By Mail tab, verify that the election you want is in focus.
  2. Go to Vote By Mail > Deliver Ballots.
  3. On the Deliver Ballots dialog, select the run type (for example, OverseasMilitary). Each of the run types has different requirements for envelope preparation or the items inserted in the package, so you should process each of the six run types for the printer. Each run will produce a separate export file.
Note: Military Dependents are included in the Overseas Military and Domestic Military runs.
  1. Click Change Sort Order and, on the Print Envelope Sort Order dialog, make any modifications you want to the sort sequence. Click Apply and OK to return to the Deliver Ballots dialog.
  2. If you want to limit the export file to a specified number of voters, enter the number in Maximum ballots to print.
  3. Select Export to Mail House.
  4. In the Mailing Date field, enter the date that the ballot packages are expected to be put in the mail. This date will be appear on theVote-By-Mailtab of voter records (in the Request Status column next to Delivered) so that workers will be able to advise voters who want to know when their ballots were mailed. Click OK.
  5. Select the ballot styles to be included in the export file and click OK. Voter Focus generates an onscreen report of voters who will be included in the export file and the totals for each ballot style. The report also lists any voters who requested a mail ballot but will not be included in the export file and the reason why they are excluded. Review the report carefully to verify it lists the voters you intend to include in the file. If there are any errors, fix them and start again with step 1.
  6. When you are certain that the list is accurate, click Update to open the Windows Open dialog displaying the folder specified in REPORTING > Flexible Reports > Flexrep Options >Path for Export Work Files. The name of the export file is displayed in the File name field. The names for the various run types are:

Overseas Military

Elec<election number>OseasMil<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

Overseas Civilian

Elec<election number>OseasCiv<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

Domestic Military

Elec<election number>DomMil<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

Absent Domestic Military

Elec<election number>AbsDomMil<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

Domestic Civilian

Elec<election number>DomCivYYYYMMDDHHMM.txt

MARG Voters

Elec<election number>MARG<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

Supervised Voters

Elec<election number>Supervised<YYYYMMDD><HHMM>.txt

You can change the folder and file names, if you want.

  1. Click Open to create the export file. Clicking Open also changes the status of the voters’ requests for this election from Absentee Ballot Requested to Delivered as of the mailing date you specified in step 11.

The Deliver Ballots dialog reappears with the status of the export file generation shown in the bottom-left corner. When you see the message Printing of Labels is Complete, the export file has been created.

  1. The mail ballot export file is now ready for delivery to the commercial printer or in-house printing system.
  2. If the Ordered List of Absentee Labels report generated above shows any voters who requested a ballot but were not included in the run, print the report and research each exception to determine if they should have received a ballot.