Coming soon: Track your mail ballot like an Amazon package

North Carolina voters who vote by mail will soon be able to track their ballots, a move to ensure voter confidence during this year’s general election. BallotTrax is expected to launch today, according to N.C. Board of Elections public information officer Patrick Gannon.

How does it work?

Think of mail ballot tracking similar to locating your package from Amazon. Voters can sign up for text, email and phone notifications alerting them to the status of their ballot, regardless if you vote by mail or ballot drop box. The system shows when a ballot is printed, sent, delivered and, most importantly, officially tabulated.

On your voter dashboard, you’ll see one of two statuses – Requested, when an absentee request form is received by the county board of elections, and Accepted, when the returned ballot is accepted by the county board of elections.

How safe is it?

BallotTrax has been around since 2009. A company press release stated that the system “has run over 300 elections, tracked over 60 million ballots, processed over 10 billion records, successfully sent over 100 million alerts and over 6 million messages, and signed up over 1.3 million voters.”

The system will notify users if there are issues with the return envelope. If the county board of elections finds an issue, then the status on your voter dashboard will change and you’ll be contacted. An example of this would be if the envelope is opened and there’s no ballot inside.