Every Vote Counts: Demystifying the Ballot Duplication Process Ahead of Expended Mail-in Voting

DEMYSTIFYING BALLOT DUPLICATION?

While the term may sound a bit mysterious, or even nefarious, to those not involved in the day-to-day intricacies of state and local election administration, the reality is straightforward. Ballot duplication is the process of replacing a damaged or improperly marked ballot (i.e., a ballot that can’t be read by the voting system) with a new ballot that preserves the voter’s intent.

Also known as ballot replication, ballot remaking and ballot transcription, the practice is commonly used by election officials throughout the U.S.

In all states, Washington, D.C., and the five U.S. territories, groups of voters who meet certain jurisdictional qualifications can cast remote ballots using a vote-by-mail or absentee voting process. In past years, many of these voters have been military and overseas voters covered by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act who do not have the option to vote in person within their voting jurisdiction in the U.S. However, in 2020 many of these qualifications have expanded to accommodate the assumed risk of casting in-person ballots due to COVID-19, and many more voters are eligible to issue mail-in ballots.

WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT BALLOT DUPLICATION IN 2020?

At its core, ballot duplication is an example of election administration contingency planning in action. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some states and local jurisdictions have moved to a by-mail or ballot drop-off voting process, either eliminating or reducing in-person voting at a polling place. Others have expanded their absentee voting programs. These states and local jurisdictions are either incorporating no-excuse absentee voting into their voting programs or expanding legally allowable reasons for voters to cast their ballots remotely to include COVID-19 concerns.

As a result, local election officials nationwide may receive higher volumes of ballots in the mail. Many of these ballots may fall into problem areas that make them unreadable by tabulation equipment. More remote voting will result in more overall usage of ballot duplication solutions to count these ballots.

HOW BALLOT DUPLICATION TECHNOLOGY WORKS

Ballot duplication technology solutions are comprised of software and hardware used to automate the transcription of damaged or otherwise machine-unreadable ballots efficiently and accurately within a transparent and verifiable environment. Ballot duplication hardware components are usually commercially available scanners, printers and computer workstations.

Two specific actions are performed during the duplication of a damaged or machine-unreadable ballot:

1. Interpretation of the ballot style — the elections official determines the version of a ballot within a jurisdiction that an individual voter is eligible to vote.

2. Preservation of the voter’s choice — the voter’s marked responses to those specific ballot style choices are preserved onto a new tabulation-ready ballot.

The process for transcribing a damaged or machine-unreadable ballot — often referred to as “damaged” — using ballot duplication technology varies according to the specific provider and technology used. However, the transcript process typically follows steps similar to these:

1. The damaged ballot is digitally scanned, either individually or as part of a “batch,” or group of damaged ballots requiring duplication. A duplicate ID number, distinct marking or barcode is physically printed on the scanned damaged ballot by the scanner simultaneously.

2. The ballot style of the damaged ballot is recognized and a “clean copy” of the appropriate ballot style is retrieved from the electronic repository of available ballot styles for that jurisdiction and a duplicated ballot image is created.

3. The same duplicate ID number, distinct marking or barcode that was printed on the damaged ballot as it was scanned is produced and associated as a digital overlay on the new duplicated ballot image. Having the same duplicate ID number on the damaged ballot and the newly created ballot results in a duplicate ID match and allows these two ballots to be associated, providing a chain of custody of the duplication process for auditability.

4. After being electronically matched, the scanned damaged ballot image and the duplicated ballot image are displayed side by side on screen and reviewed for approval by a team of bipartisan election workers, often called a “ballot board.” These boards are tasked with approving all ballots requiring duplication following the jurisdiction’s election laws and procedures.

5. Upon approval by the ballot board, the new duplicated ballot image is printed — if required — and routed for tabulation.

6. The new duplicated ballot is counted by the jurisdiction’s tabulation system.

PREPARING FOR FUTURE ELECTIONS

The CSG Overseas Voting Initiative expects that elections conducted during the coronavirus pandemic will likely yield a higher volume of ballots returned via mail or other methods.

As state primaries have come to a close, this assertion has often proven to be true. In the West Virginia presidential primary alone, slightly more than half of the state’s 436,000 votes were returned by mail. According to West Virginia Secretary of State Andrew “Mac” Warner, this constitutes a roughly 47% increase from previous presidential primaries.

This drastic uptake in by-mail voting has significant implications for the process of ballot duplication and, subsequently, election officials’ contingency planning. As the number of voters who mark their ballot outside of a polling place increases, so do the opportunities for a ballot to be damaged. In order to ensure the November election progresses smoothly, it will be necessary for election officials to discuss how to properly manage the duplication of these ballots as well as how to instill voter confidence in this process.

To learn more about ballot duplication and recommendations for elections officials suited for 2020 elections and beyond, visit ovi.csg.org/blogs.