Process a Vote-By-Mail Request for All Elections

Vote-By-Mail Request can be processed when an election is in Open or Active status. The election must be set up in Voter Focus, but ballot styles need not be created before entering Vote-By-Mail Requests.

When an election is in Return Processing Only status, the methods for issuing mail ballots are limited. See About an Election's Status for a list of the Voter Focus tasks that can be performed in each election status, including Vote-By-Mail tasks.

Requests for mail ballots can come from the voter, someone in their immediate family, or the voter's legal guardian. Requests can be made in person, by phone, in writing by mail, email, fax, or on the internet via the Vote-By-Mail Request Form on the Supervisor's website.

Vote-By-Mail Requests from military voters (including military dependents) usually come via the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) form (see Process a Vote-By-Mail Request from an FPCA Applicant), but this is not required:  military voters have the option of making an all-elections request without using the FPCA form. In such cases, many elections offices submit an ell-elections request, assigning the military voter Permanent Vote-By-Mail status, and checking the Military or Mil Dep (military dependent) box. Some elections offices process them as FPCA applicants, even though no FPCA form was submitted. Before recording Vote-By-Mail Requests for a military voter with no FPCA form, you'll need to find out what your office's policy is.

There are two ways to record a Vote-By-Mail Request for all elections—from the Vote By Mail tab or from the Voter Registration tab. The method you use will depend on your user permissions and your county's procedures for entering requests.

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

  2. On the Maint tab, verify that the voter's status is Active or Inactive. Make any other changes the voter might have provided along with the request.

    Note: Putting on a Vote-By-Mail Request for an Inactive voter automatically changes their status to Active with a reason code of Reinstate because AB request.

  3. If the voter has provided a change of residence address, see Change a Mail-Ballot Voter's Residential Address. Changes to the voter's residence address must be done before the ballot is issued; otherwise the voter might not receive the correct ballot style.

  4. Click the Vote-By-Mailtab. In the Vote-By-Mail Status field, select the appropriate value for this voter:

Permanent—Select if the voter is a member of the military, is a military dependent, or has asked to receive the annual Notice of Elections, which allows them to renew their request for all elections for the upcoming year.

Note: The Notice of Elections is typically mailed to voters towards the end of the year. It lists the elections planned for the coming year with space for the voter to check all elections or the elections they want to vote-by-mail. Some counties send the Notice of Elections only to Permanent Vote-By-Mail voters; others send the notice to all eligible voters. The Notice of Elections must be created as a Voter Focus Document in Document Maintenance. The list of voters to receive it is created in FlexRep.

Temporary—Select if the voter has not asked to receive the annual Notice of Elections. In this case, the voter will be mailed ballots only for the current calendar year—or the upcoming year, if you have begun accepting Vote-By-Mail Requests for next year.

  1. Use the Comment field for any office remarks or notes about voter preferences. Should you need more space than the 25 characters provided, type See Communication Log in the Comment field, click Office Note, and make an office note.

  2. If the voter is in the military or is a military dependent, check Military or Mil Dep, respectively.

  3. Enter an email address if the voter provided one with their request.

  4. Click All Elections and fill out the Vote-By-Mail Request dialog. Click Save to return to the Vote-By-Mail tab.

Notice that the note Requested All Elections through <expiration date> is displayed at the bottom of the dialog.

If ballot styles for a requested election have not yet been created or assigned to precincts (or the federal election style for Fed Elections Only voters has not been designated), you will see XXX in the Style column for the request. When the Deliver Ballots runs are performed (including runs that create export files for Pitney Bowes Relia-Vote and external mailing houses), the system will evaluate the voter's status, party, and precinct to determine their eligibility and ballot style. At that time, the XXX placeholder will be replaced by the appropriate ballot style for the voter.

  1. If the voter provided one or more addresses where ballots are to be mailed or emailed, click Address Override and follow the instructions in Vote-By-Mail Addresses.

  2. When you return to the Vote-By-Mailtab, the status of the request for each of the future elections you selected in step 8 is shown in the Request Status column. The voter now has Vote-By-Mail Requests for all elections that are currently set up in Voter Focus, except for those occurring after the calendar year of the second general election and those for which the voter is not eligible to vote. For any elections created in the future for which the voter is eligible, Voter Focus will generate a Vote-By-Mail Request during the daily run of the background task AbsenteeGenerateRequests.

Note: If ballot styles for the election have not yet been created or assigned to precincts (or the federal election style for Fed Elections Only voters has not been designated), you will see XXX in the Style column for this request. When the Deliver Ballots runs are performed (including runs that create export files for Pitney Bowes Relia-Vote and external mailing houses), the system will evaluate the voter's status, party, and precinct to determine their eligibility and ballot style. At that time, the XXX placeholder will be replaced by the appropriate ballot style for the voter.
  1. Go to Vote By Mail > Vote-By-Mail Request.
  2. On the Find a Voter dialog, search for the voter.
  3. On the Vote-By-Mail Request dialog, verify that the voter's status is Active or Inactive by checking the color behind their voter registration ID in the upper-left corner of the dialog. (Active status has no color, Inactive has an aqua or light blue background).
Note:  Putting on a Vote-By-Mail Request for an Inactive voter automatically changes their status to Active with a reason code of Reinstate because AB request.

  1. In the Vote-By-Mail Status field, select one of the following:

    Permanent—Select if the voter is a member of the military, is a military dependent, or has asked to receive the annual Notice of Elections, which allows them to renew their request for all elections for the upcoming year.

    Note: The Notice of Elections is typically mailed to voters towards the end of the year. It lists the elections planned for the coming year with space for the voter to check all elections or the elections they want to vote-by-mail. Some counties send the Notice of Elections only to Permanent Vote-By-Mail voters; others send the notice to all eligible voters. The Notice of Elections must be created as a Voter Focus Document in Document Maintenance. The list of voters to receive it is created in FlexRep.

    Temporary—Select if the voter has not asked to receive the annual Notice of Elections. In this case, the voter will be mailed ballots only for the current calendar year—or the upcoming year, if you have begun accepting Vote-By-Mail Requests for next year.

  2. Use the Comment field for any office remarks or notes about voter preferences.

Note: Should you need more space than the 25 characters provided, type See Communication Log in the Comment field, and make an office note in the voter's record after you have finished recording the request.
  1. Enter an email address if the voter provided one with their request.
  2. If the voter is in the military or is a military dependent, check Military or Mil Dep, respectively.
  3. Select All Elections as the Request Type. The Request check boxes for all elections listed for which the voter is eligible are automatically selected. If the voter does not wish to vote in a specific election, you can clear the Request check box for that election.

  4. If a third party made the request or picked up the ballot, complete the Requester Information fields. In the Relationship field, you can select one of the available options or you can type in something else, such as Neighbor. Some counties select Self in the Relationship field when the request is made or the ballot picked up by the voter.

To make a request, the third party must be a member of the voter's immediate family or their legal guardian. The State requires:

  • If the requester has a driver license or SSN, the number should be recorded with the request. Be sure to include the identifying information in the Requestor DLN or Requestor Last4SSN field.
  • The type of ID provided for the voter. Select from the Voter ID Provided list.

  1. In the How Requested field, select the way the voter requested the ballot. The options listed in the drop-down list will depend upon the status of the election:

Open elections—Requests can be made:

Persn—In person.

Mail, Phone, Fax, or E-Mail—By mail, phone, fax, or email.

Web—Via the elections office website.

No ballots can be issued while the election status is Open.

Active elections—Requests can be made in the same way as in Open elections. You can also issue mail ballots and receive Federal Write In Absentee Ballots, so these options are added to the list:

Online—Used by counties participating in the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP).

Pick-up—The voter requested and picked up their ballot from the Supervisor's office. Pickup ballots can be issued up to 49 days in advance of the election. If your county uses ballot numbers for pickup voters, when Pick-up is selected, the Ballot Number field appears so you can enter the number of the ballot issued to the voter. The delivery method is automatically set to PkUp.

3rdParty—The ballot was requested and picked up by a third party presenting the voter's signed request that the ballot be given to the third party. If your county uses ballot numbers for pickup voters, when 3rdParty is selected, the Ballot Number field appears so you can enter the number of the ballot issued to the voter. The delivery method is automatically set to 3rdP.

FWAB—The voter has submitted a Federal Write In Absentee Ballot. Only voters who are absent uniformed service members or citizens residing outside the United States can use this type of ballot.

Return Processing Only elections—Requests for mail ballots can no longer be taken, but ballots can be issued, so the options are Pick-Up, 3rdParty, and FWAB.

  1. In the Requested Delivery field, select the delivery method requested by the voter:

Mail—If the voter provided an absentee address, enter it on the Vote-By-Mail Addresses dialog. To open this dialog, click the Add Address button in the Change Address column in the list of elections.

Email—For email delivery, you will need to enter the voter's email address in the E-Mail field, if you have not already done so.

Fax—For fax delivery, you will need to enter the voter's fax number on the Vote-By-Mail Addresses dialog. To open this dialog, click the Add Address button in the Change Address column in the list of elections.

Online—When the How Requested field is Online, the Requested Delivery field will be set automatically to Online.

Note: Only UOCAVA voters can receive ballots by email, fax, or online. For non-UOCAVA voters, the Online option will be unavailable.

  1. The Date Requested field displays the current date and time. If the request was received earlier than today, change the date to reflect the actual date you received the request.

  2. If the voter provided changes to their voter registration record along with the Vote-By-Mail Requests, click the Voters icon () to access their record and make the changes.

If the voter has provided a change of residence address, see How to Change a Mail-Ballot Voter's Residence Address. You can record the request from the Vote By Mail tab before changing the address, but the address change must be made before the ballot is issued; otherwise the voter might not receive the correct ballot style.

  1. Click Save and Print to save the request and print the Absentee Request Information Sheet to your Windows default printer or click Save to save the request without printing the sheet.

  • Florida law allows voters to make a single request for mail ballots for all elections held from the date of the request through the calendar year of the next regularly scheduled general election held after the request date.
  • You might assume that a voter whose Vote-By-Mail status is Permanent will automatically receive mail ballots for all elections for which they are eligible, so it would therefore be unnecessary to process all-elections requests for such a voter. That is not the case. The Permanent status is used only as a selection criterion for the Notice of Elections letter, which is typically mailed to voters at the end of the year, asking if they want to request mail ballots for the upcoming election cycle. The Permanent status does not affect the recording of Vote-By-Mail Requests.
  • An upcoming general election is not considered the next general election if the all elections request is submitted after 5:00 pm of the 6th day prior to the upcoming election date.
  • If a voter previously made an all-elections request, processing undeliverable mail with no change of address or an out-of-state address automatically triggers the cancellation of any outstanding Vote-By-Mail Requests for future elections (unless a ballot has already been delivered), sets the expiration date of the all-elections request to today's date, and schedules a Canceled Requests Notice to be sent to the voter.