Once you've signed, sealed and delivered your mail-in ballot, a tool available to all California voters can help you track it.
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As of mid-October, more than 2 million of California's more than 21 million registered voters signed up for the state’s ballot tracking service. They receive automated notifications about the location of their vote-by-mail ballots from the time they receive it to the time it's accounted for at the county elections office.
Here's what to know about the BallotTrax tool.
How to Sign Up
- Click here to sign up and track your ballot.
- Register with your name, date of birth, and ZIP code.
- You’ll need to provide a notification method — email, text, or phone and in what language.
What You’ll Receive
- You’ll receive alerts from the county elections office about your ballot's location.
- Alerts are sent when the office mails the ballot, receives the ballot from the voter and counts the ballot.
- Voters also will get an alert if there’s a problem with the ballot.
- Important updates and election deadline information.
The tracker was rolled out after a 2018 bill that require the California Secretary of State to provide a tracking service to county elections offices. It was expanded statewide after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order requiring vote-by-mail ballots be sent to all California voters to avoid large gatherings at polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.
California, Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado and Nevada also used BallotTrax. Other states, including Oregon and Arizona, have individual counties that use the tool.
More than 70 percent of California voters submitted ballots by mail in the March primary election, held before Newsom’s order and statewide coronavirus restrictions.
Ballots for the Nov. 3 election began arriving for all registered voters in October.
Remember to sign the ballot and the envelope provided by your county elections office before returning. A ballot postmarked on or before Election Day is allowed to be counted.
If your ballot arrives 17 days after the election, but you cast it no later than Election Day, your vote still counts.
