Kind: captions
Language: en
i just want to thank you and get out and
vote
show up and vote you will determine the
outcome of this election
due to the pandemic voting by mail is
huge right now
election officials are bracing for an
unprecedented wave of mail-in ballots
in 2016 less than 34 million ballots
were mailed in
in total this year voters have requested
over 90 million ballots to be submitted
by mail
and a week before the election more than
45 million have already been returned
and for it all to succeed there's one
basic requirement for a ballot
it has to make it all the way through
the mail in both directions
from your local election office to you
the voter
and back again a vote by mail ballot
that can't be counted is to me the
ultimate election tragedy
we have to have an election system that
supports people through the process of
voting
so that their ballots get counted which
is where the center for civic design
comes in they have worked exclusively
with the usps in trying to create
the i guess you can say perfect election
mail envelope
the envelope is a kind of technical
machine it's a machine you've designed
to carry the ballot to and from the
voter
the u.s postal service will repeatedly
scan
and sort that envelope which means you
want to ensure that those mail pieces
are easily visible that they can be
recognized that everything is clearly
printed
step one start with a rectangle usps
sorting machines use the rectangular
shape to orient the envelope
and it assumes that it's wider than it
is tall and anything that's different is
going to get spit out the machines are
going to say i don't know what to do
with this
and it has to get hand processed that
makes it take more time
then there's what goes on that rectangle
it's what the automated
envelope reading machines are looking
for the upper right corner
is reserved for postage in several
vertical bars
they call that the face anna what is it
the face
identification mark thank you that's to
help the machines know which is the
front of the envelope
there's the return address the delivery
address
the election mail logo that's the swoopy
thing that says election mail with the
stars behind it only election offices
are allowed to use it and all of those
things
need to be in specific areas and
specific places
that's a lot to put on a little tiny
rectangle a lot of what we did
was just sort of moving around blocks of
text
on the envelope to find that that
perfect sweet spot where
the envelope was easy for the machines
to read but also easy
for the voters to understand and also
easy for the election officials to
receive and get the information that
they needed
and then you need the magic thing which
is the intelligent mail barcode an
intelligent mail barcode is
actually an encoded string of digits
this string of vertical bars
is code for a 20 to 31 digit number
that contains a wealth of information
about each envelope
the first element in that barcode is
something called a barcode identifier
for election mail it's usually two
digits
usually zero zero the piece that follows
that
is the service type id or the sting this
is going to identify the class of mail
ballots are sent as first class mail or
usps
marketing mail and as of august 2018
it tells us whether or not that piece is
a ballot so just by reading the barcode
they can tell that it's something to do
with an election and it ensures that as
election mail is moving through the
postal stream
those pieces are being treated with
efficiency as they're being processed
after this did you have the mailer id or
mid
whoever owns that mid will own any
associated scan data every time that
intelligent mail barcode is scanned
for ballots the mailer id usually
belongs to the local or
state election office or the vendor
helping to provide
mail services to the jurisdiction or
state after the mid
is the unique serial number for every
single voter
the last piece is the zip code or what
we also call the routing code
and so when you piece that and string
that all together you've got your
intelligent mail barcode
as that ballot is traveling through the
mail that intelligent mail barcode is
being scanned
and this helps us ensure a ballast full
chain of custody in the mail
so you can watch that piece as it's
moving and ensure that it's getting to
the place that it needs to get to
because the barcode is encoded an
individual voter
can't use it to follow their ballot but
the usps
and other tracking services can if
there's ever an instance where it seems
like a ballot hasn't been delivered
or received by the election office using
that intelligent mail barcode can help
the usps
track down where that specific envelope
might be
so once you drop your ballot in the mail
there are safeguards in place to make
sure your vote gets where it needs to go
the usps is definitely an innovative
institution
always thinking of methods in which to
improve the services that they provide
to customers
especially when it comes to election
mail most states allow voters to drop
their mail and ballots off
at the local election office in person
in many states if you order a mail-in
ballot you can still vote in person
the process varies from state to state
but may involve
surrendering your ballot to the polling
place or election center before voting
in person
despite the systems in place to get your
ballot where it needs to go
issues may still arise leading to your
vote being rejected
these include problems with your
signature not
filling out all required information on
the envelope
like the date your address or birth date
and not mailing or dropping off your
ballot on time
our work is about making sure that
everybody who is eligible
and wants to vote can vote and maybe
even going a step further and saying
it's about making sure that we encourage
everyone who's eligible
to vote for more information on how to
vote
visit vote.gov eac.gov
[Music]
howto.vote