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Worried about your mail-in ballot? These states let you track it online

An election worker moves a container of mail-in ballots from the Postal Service to be processed at the Salt Lake County election offices in Salt Lake City on Nov. 4.
George Frey
/
AFP via Getty Images
An election worker moves a container of mail-in ballots from the Postal Service to be processed at the Salt Lake County election offices in Salt Lake City on Nov. 4.

For any voter who wants to be sure their ballot is counted, nearly every state has some form of online ballot tracking. The systems can send status updates and inform a voter if there's a problem.

Here's a guide to where things stand:

Online ballot tracking for mailed-in or absentee ballots is available in every state except Illinois, Missouri and Wyoming — and even if there is no statewide system, some counties also provide the service.

In many cases, the services require you to enter your name, date of birth and ZIP code to let you look up your ballot's status. Most sites will then send you texts or emails as your ballot progresses through the system.

If you'd like to track your ballot, a chart at the Vote.org website has links to each state's online services, along with links to county election agencies.

Voters using the systems can "track their ballot like an Amazon package via an intelligent mail barcode," according to the National Vote at Home Institute, getting notifications when their ballot has arrived at the elections office and about whether it has been accepted.

One of the main tracking service providers is BallotTrax, a division of i3logix Inc. based in Denver. The company says it's active in 546 counties across 26 states.

Read more here on what voting officials are doing to keep ballots safe.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Bill Chappell is a writer and editor on the News Desk in the heart of NPR's newsroom in Washington, D.C.