In 2020, more than 400,000 North Carolina voters tracked their absentee ballots from when they were printed to when they were counted. It was the first year of BallotTrax, an absentee ballot tracking system currently used in 17 states and the District of Columbia.
As of Tuesday, 398,627 absentee ballots had been sent out statewide, and 110,612 had been cast.
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BallotTrax was developed by i3logix, a Colorado-based software company.
According to i3logix President Steve Olsen, North Carolina currently has 404,964 enrolled BallotTrax users, and 387,335 active mail ballots.
What is BallotTrax?
BallotTrax coordinates with state and county election offices, print vendors and USPS to determine where a voter’s absentee ballot is during several points in the process — when a ballot is printed, when it has been mailed to the requestor, when it is received by a county board of elections office and finally, when it is counted.
Voters may opt in for text, email or phone notifications about their ballot’s progress. They may limit notification hours as well.
The system may also notify a voter whose ballot is rejected or has an issue like a missing signature that needs to be fixed. Or it could just remind them of their polling place.
Voters can sign up for BallotTrax at northcarolina.ballottrax.net/voter using name, date of birth and zip code.
Those who signed up in 2020 or 2021 should still be in the system, unless they moved to a different county.
How does BallotTrax work?
BallotTrax does not know or track a voter’s ballot choices; it only tracks the ballot envelope using barcode technology.
In 2020, the system caused some confusion with inconsistent notifications, potentially caused by a lack of coordination with USPS.
But last April, it met the SOC 2 compliance standard, developed by the American Institute of CPAs. Among other things, this means BallotTrax has measures in place to protect sensitive or personal information and safeguard voters’ privacy.
Do voters know about this system?
This August, a Catawba College-YouGov survey of 1,000 North Carolina residents found that not everyone knew about BallotTrax.
Among survey respondents, 53% were unaware an option existed to track absentee ballots. Older voters tended to be less aware of the ability to track ballots than younger voters, while the level of awareness was mostly equal across party affiliation.
According to a North Carolina BallotTrax User Report, Wake, Mecklenburg, Durham and Guilford counties have the most voters signed up for the tracking program.
Signups have steadily increased since September, when the tool became available in North Carolina for 2024. In the past two months, an average of 366 voters have signed up each day.
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