Supervisor Lisa Lewis has announced a new partnership with software program BallotTrax, which alerts voters when their ballots have arrived and been counted.
"This new technology gives the voter more confidence in the voting process," Lewis said in a news release.
The service is free for voters, although data rates may apply.
Lewis said she's "hoping in the future to add Intelligent Mail Barcodes to the vote-by-mail envelopes," which would allow voters to follow each step in the mail process, such as when the ballot is being delivered to their mailbox.
The technology isn't all that new; BallotTrax President Steve Olsen said the original version was built in 2009 for Denver, Colorado; the program was rebuilt in 2012 and started being marketed to other communities the following year.
"We've been slowly adding counties to the process," Olsen said. "In 2020, obviously, the push toward vote-by-mail became pretty huge with the pandemic."
As a result, BallotTrax has expanded from about 40 counties nationwide to more than 500.
The program can be used to alert voters if a problem has been encountered, such as a ballot arriving unreadable or a signature not matching what's on file at the supervisor's office.
Lewis said once voters have registered to receive the BallotTrax notifications, their registration stays active as long as they have a vote-by-mail request on file.
A new Florida election law will require voters who've requested vote-by-mail ballots to make that request for each election after 2022.
To register for BallotTrax, voters may visit VolusiaElections.gov and click on the BallotTrax link on the home page. Voters with questions can contact the Supervisor of Elections Office at 386-736-5930 or elections@volusia.org.
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