Create a Vote-by-Mail Referral Reason

During the ballot-return process, if a ballot cannot be accepted and therefore must be referred to the canvassing board, you should select a value in the Referral Reason field on the Return Ballots dialog and click Refer Return.

The values in the Referral Reason field are maintained in VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Codes > Vote-by-Mail Referral Reasons. Each referral reason must be associated with a notice that goes to the voter informing them that their ballot has been referred. Typically this notice is a vote-by-mail referral letter.

If the reason is flagged as a "No Signature" Reason, a signature affidavit is also scheduled, advising the voter that they can come to the Supervisor's office to cure their ballot prior to election day.

To create a vote-by-mail referral reason:

  1. Go to VOTER FOCUS ADMIN > System Codes > Vote-by-Mail Referral Reasons.

  2. On the Vote-by-Mail Referral Reasons dialog, you'll see a list of the existing referral reasons on the left and details on the highlighted reason on the right.

  3. Click New.

  4. Enter a one-character (letter or number) code in the Referral Reason Code field.

  5. In FVRS Voter Error Type, select a State reason that most closely matches the reason you are creating. Note that the State code (for example, the code A for No Address) need not match the code in the Referral Reason Code field.

  6. In Description, enter the text that will appear in the Referral Reason drop-down list on the Return Ballots dialog, which users will be selecting when they process the return of mail ballots.

  7. In Web Description, enter the text that will appear in the Not Counted referral reason on the Voter Information Lookup page.

  8. Select Currently Used. This will include the new reason in the Referral Reason list. You would want to clear this check box if a reason is now longer used or you do not want it to appear for a particular election and are hiding it temporarily.

  9. In Notice Sent to Voter, select the notice that will be scheduled for voters whose ballots are referred. Note that the voter will receive the notice only if the canvassing board decides to reject their ballot. If the ballot is accepted and tabulated, the notice will be unscheduled.

  10. Select "No Signature" Reason if the reason pertains to a lack of signature. You should select this option even if your county does not send a Signature Affidavit for Unsigned Mail Ballot notice, so that referrals due to no signature are properly reported in the Absentee Ballot Request Information File sent daily to the State. (See Referrals Because the Ballot Is Not Signed for more information.)

  11. Click Save to add the new referral reason to the list.

See About Referral of Returned Mail Ballots for more information.