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TrackMIBallot: New System Helps Keep Track Of Votes By Mail

pic of TrackMIBallot Logo
Kent Communications inc.

A Grand Rapids company is getting good reviews after it launched the state’s first beginning-to-end mail ballot tracking system.  Kent Communications Inc. is a Grand Rapids based mail service provider.  It’s “TrackMIBallot” product aims to add what they call a “critical layer” of integrity to the vote-by-mail process.

“Track my ballot is a way that clerks around Michigan can track every absentee ballot from the clerk to the voter and from the voter back to the clerk.”
 

Brian Quist is the founder of TrackMIBallot and president of Kent Communications Inc.  He says with Michigan clerks issuing more than three times the number of absentee ballots for a primary election than they did at the same time four years ago, his new TrackMIBallot system can help.  It works in conjunction with a service from the US postal service to track each ballot. 

“We put a special tracking bar code on the ballot that allows the clerk to see it. And we also send the voter a link to the tracking page so every time they get a delivery scan, it triggers the text and email and they see their ballot.”

The city of Walker along with Grand Rapids Township, Cannon Township and Lansing, were the first to use TrackMIBallot in a beta-test in the August primaries.  Walker City Clerk, Sarah Bydalek says it worked out well and they’re planning on using it again in November.

“Because we have had a lot of issues in the past with people saying they mailed their ballot or application and we never received it and this is going to be a great tool for us to be able to go online and track them mailing it to us to know if it got lost in the mail and where it is.  Tracking will give voters more confidence and it will also give us that avenue of tracking where it went to or where it is.”

Quist says he’s getting interest from others around the state and is close to signing up a sizeable community in West Michigan.  More information about this system can be found at trackmiballot.com

Jennifer is an award winning broadcast news journalist with more than two decades of professional television news experience including the nation's fifth largest news market. She's worked as both news reporter and news anchor for television and radio in markets from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo all the way to San Francisco, California.