How to

Process an In-Office Absentee Ballot—Voter Registration

In-office absentee ballot materials can be given to voters any time after ballots become available (that is, when the election status is changed from Open to Active) up through election day.

Note  Some counties close in-office absentee functions once early voting begins.

In-office absentee ballots differ from other mail ballots in that there is no need to process them as returned. By recording a ballot as an in-office vote, you are also recording the ballot as returned.

You can use Voter Focus to process in-office absentee ballots. There are two methods in Voter Focus:

VOTER REGISTRATION > Voter Maintenance (described below)

EARLY VOTING > Early/Counter Vote

To process an in-office absentee ballot via VOTER REGISTRATION:

1. Access the voter's record via a local search and, on the Maint tab, verify that their status is Active or Inactive.

Note  Processing an early vote for an Inactive voter automatically changes their status to Active with a reason code of Reinstate because voted.

2. Verify the voter's residence address, date of birth, political party affiliation, and signature.

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-Mail tab. If you are in the early-voting period for any election in your Voter Focus system and this is the first voter record you've accessed, you will be asked to select your early-voting location.

5. On the Vote-by-Mail tab, click Early/In office Vote. If multiple elections are scheduled, you will be asked to choose an election.

6. On the Voting Election dialog, check the message box on the left side of the dialog for messages pertaining to the voter's eligibility or previous absentee requests.

If the voter is a MARG voter A first-time voter who registered by mail and who is therefore required to produce a photo ID before voting. (MARG is an acronym for MAil ReGistration.), 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 cannot be issued a regular ballot; they can vote only by provisional ballot.

7. In the Voting Method box, select Office Absentee.

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's office.

8. If your county uses ballot numbers, enter the ballot number in the Ballot Number field.

9. Click OK to complete processing of the absentee ballot. If your Voter Focus system 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.

10. Give the ballot materials to the voter.

11. After the voter has voted in the office, they should place it in the secrecy envelope and give the envelope to you. You should then store the envelope with the other mail ballots awaiting tabulation.