Index Images of Undeliverable Mail Ballot Envelopes

Note:  This topic is intended for counties who have the BlueCrest (formerly Pitney Bowes) Relia-Vote interface.

For mail ballots returned as undeliverable by the postal service, you have the option of indexing the envelope image to the voter's record as a new entry on their Comms tab. The image capture is done by the Relia-Vote system, which reads the bar code on the envelope, gives the image file a name in the format:

<bar code number>.TIF

and saves the images in its image archive, a folder that must be accessible to users of Vote-By-Mail functions in Voter Focus.

Once the Relia-Vote files have been captured and saved, the Voter Focus user can then follow the procedure described below to index the images to voter records and mark the ballots as returned.

During the indexing process, Voter Focus moves each image from the Relia-Vote image archive to the folder dedicated for indexed images and renames the image in conformance with the Voter Focus internal naming convention for image files.

Note:  The folder containing indexed images is defined by VR Systems personnel during installation of Voter Focus. If you are curious about the location of your indexed images, go to VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Options > Image Locations.

Once an image has been indexed to the voter's record, you can view it by going to their Comms tab and double-clicking the line containing the voter communication. The Type field for this communication will be Undeliverable Absentee Ballot. Having the image on hand can be useful should the voter inquire about the ballot.

The date on the communication entry is the date of the image capture by Relia-Vote. The communication type is UB—Undeliverable Absentee Ballot.

Following the procedure described here not only attaches the image to the voter's record but marks their ballot as Referred for the reason Returned Undeliverable. This means you will not follow the usual return process for the ballot.

Keep in mind that this procedure also verifies if a previous ballot was returned and processed for the voter. If a previously returned ballot recorded (1) a successful vote or (2) a voting error, only the image is indexed. The status associated that returned ballot is retained and not changed by this process. However, if multiple returned ballots are processed as undeliverable, each undeliverable ballot is recorded by the system.

Note: To use the procedure, you must be granted the Retrieve Envelope Images and put in Voter Communications permission in VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Options >Vote By Mail > Relia-Vote Options.
  1. Using Relia-Vote, capture the envelope images and save them in an accessible network folder.
  2. If needed, change the election focus to the applicable Active or Return Processing Only election.
  3. Go to Vote-By-Mail > Relia-Vote Utilities > Process Undeliverable Ballot Images.
  4. Enter the return date.
  5. Click Locate and Edit Image Folder.

The number of Good Records indicates how many images in the folder can be associated with a valid ballot ID in the Voter Focus database. Any number other than zero for Errors should be investigated, as those images will not be able to be associated with a ballot. For every error, you will see a message like:

Could not locate ballot with ID = 30020000022.

The ID here is the bar code number associated with the ballot. This number is printed on the envelope. It is not likely that you will get any errors during this process.

You can execute the Locate and Edit Image Folder run as many times as you like until the message reports zero errors.

For a printout of the messages in the left pane, click Print Report.