How to track your ballot and what to do if it's been damaged

Election officials successful Vancouver, Washington, are encouraging voters to cheque the presumption of their absentee ballots aft an arsonist lit a ballot driblet container connected occurrence connected Monday morning, damaging hundreds of ballots 1 week earlier Election Day.

While incidents of atrocious actors targeting ballot driblet boxes are rare, experts told ABC News that the infrastructure surrounding absentee voting implicit the past decennary has allowed predetermination officials to beryllium prepared for specified incidents, done the usage of 24-hour surveillance, occurrence suppression systems, and precocious ballot tracking software.

A mail-in ballot is returned astatine a Voters Services outer bureau astatine the Chester County Government Services Center, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, successful West Chester, Pa.

AP Photo/Matt Slocum

"These are the types of scenarios that predetermination officials are staying up astatine nighttime reasoning astir and person been reasoning astir for years and arsenic portion of their contingency planning," said Claire Woodall-Vogg, the erstwhile enforcement manager of the Milwaukee Election Commission. "While it's precise rare, it's thing that your predetermination authoritative has decidedly thought about."

Monday's arson onslaught -- which destroyed hundreds of ballots successful Vancouver, Washington and 3 successful Portland, Oregon -- follows different incidents past week erstwhile ballots successful Florida and Arizona were damaged successful transit. Phoenix officials besides arrested a antheral for arson past week aft helium allegedly lit a occurrence wrong a USPS postulation mailbox, destroying 5 ballots, and national prosecutors successful Florida charged different antheral past week for allegedly disposing of hundreds of pieces of predetermination mail, including astatine slightest 1 ballot.

How tin voters find retired if their ballot is impacted?

Voters who fishy their ballot mightiness beryllium impacted should interaction their section predetermination bureau to corroborate if their ballot has been received, according to Brian Hinkle, elder voting argumentation researcher astatine the Movement Advancement Project.

Forty-seven states connection escaped ballot tracking services, allowing voters to corroborate if their ballots person been mailed, received and counted. In Clark County, Washington -- wherever Vancouver is located -- voters tin way their ballots done the VoteWA online tool.

"If they don't person a connection that their ballot has been accepted for counting oregon adjacent received by the region bureau to beryllium accepted, they're going to cognize something's wrong," said Steve Olsen, the president of BallotTrax, a bundle institution whose ballot tracking work covers 28% of American voters.

When possible, predetermination officials volition besides effort to interaction immoderate elector they judge whitethorn beryllium impacted by an incidental to guarantee their ballots are received oregon to assistance with a replacement ballot. Because the USPS recommends that voters message their ballot by Oct. 29 to guarantee it is received successful time, immoderate voters who petition replacement ballots whitethorn request to ballot successful idiosyncratic alternatively than effort to ballot by message again.

"There are systems successful spot successful each state, with each ineligible system, to marque definite that someone's ballot wouldn't beryllium taken distant from them by specified a transgression act," said Woodall-Vogg.

How are predetermination officials capable to way idiosyncratic ballots?

According to Olsen, predetermination officials are capable to way idiosyncratic ballots by utilizing "intelligent message barcodes" that are embedded successful envelopes for absentee ballots.

"Voters tin way their ballots likewise to however they would way bundle delivery," said Hinkle.

The barcodes -- which are printed connected the envelopes sent to voters, arsenic good arsenic the instrumentality envelopes for the ballots themselves -- let voters to way erstwhile their absentee ballot is mailed out, sent back, and received by predetermination officials.

The tracking exertion cannot spot however a ballot has been filled out.

"Basically, what we're doing is tracking the envelopes," said Olsen. "We person nary entree to the ballot."

BallotTrax works with predetermination offices successful 546 counties crossed the United States, covering 72 cardinal voters and tracking implicit 240 cardinal ballots. Created successful 2009 to assistance the metropolis of Denver its elections, the institution expanded tenfold successful 2020 erstwhile ample swaths of the state moved to mail-in voting arsenic a effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Individual counties ft the measure for the BallotTrax service, which allows voters to opt-in to person escaped updates astir their ballot status, according to Olsen. Even if a elector does not opt successful to tracking, predetermination offices tin inactive way ballots to place issues.

Once a ballot makes it to a section predetermination bureau and is removed from its instrumentality envelope, the ballot is nary longer identifiable to a peculiar voter, preserving the anonymity of the vote.

"Once the ballot is pulled retired of the envelope, wherever each of the recognition marks are connected it, it becomes anonymous astatine that point," Olsen said.

What happens to damaged ballots?

If a ballot is damaged successful transit but inactive recognizable, predetermination officials tin effort to remake the ballot truthful that it tin beryllium fed into a voting machine. Bipartisan teams are progressive successful the process known arsenic "ballot duplication."

"The predetermination workers volition reconstruct the ballot to sphere the voters' intent and construe it onto a cleanable caller ballot," Hinke said.

If a elector suspects their ballot mightiness beryllium damaged, they should interaction their section predetermination bureau to corroborate if their ballot has been received oregon if they request to petition a replacement ballot.

Are ballot driblet boxes safe?

Despite the caller high-profile incidents, ballot driblet boxes are inactive 1 of the astir unafraid ways to formed a ballot, according to experts.

Most ballot driblet boxes are tamper proof, bolted to the ground, nether 24-hour surveillance, and see occurrence suppression systems. In astir areas, the ballots themselves are picked up by two-person teams.

"We person a chain-of-custody strategy successful spot truthful that we cognize erstwhile we picked up the ballots and erstwhile we dropped them off, and each the ballots person barcodes connected them, truthful that they're secure," said George Dreckmann, a longtime canvass idiosyncratic successful Milwaukee. "So the driblet container strategy is arsenic harmless arsenic putting it successful the mail, and successful immoderate cases, mightiness adjacent beryllium safer."

Drop boxes successful galore states person occurrence suppression systems that extinguish fires utilizing pulverization alternatively than water, preventing further harm to the ballots. While the occurrence suppression strategy failed to enactment efficaciously during Monday's arson onslaught successful Clark County, predetermination officials credited the occurrence suppression strategy with redeeming implicit 400 ballots successful neighboring Multnomah County, Oregon.

"These boxes are precise secure, and voters should beryllium capable to spot utilizing them," said Hinkle.