The politically charged 2024 federal election is in the books, as the presidential inauguration approaches. Over 25 million U.S. citizens returned a mail ballot before Election Day on November 5, and over 65 million Americans, including military members abroad, requested an absentee ballot (according to data from Election Lab at the University of Florida). Election officials, how was your most recent experience at the polls? • Were you swamped with absentee ballots? • Did you experience difficulty finding volunteers and temporary workers to sort and verify ballots? • Did your county field complaints or concerns about transparency or the inability to account for individual ballot envelopes delivered to your facility? Early 2025 is the time to investigate technology tools, such as ballot validation and sorting automation systems, that can help the next election to go more smoothly. Tritek's Correct Elect addresses the challenges faced by local officials. Automation provided by these solutions streamlines the process. They account for every ballot envelope, speeding voter and witness signature verification, and sorting by precinct prior to opening and tabulating the votes. Read more about how advanced technology can allay the four most common vote-by-mail concerns: 1) ballot security, 2) signature verification, 3) efficiency/error reduction and 4) transparency/trust. Automated workflow and integrity enhancements, such as the Correct Elect System, help election officials mitigate perceptions of impropriety in ballot-handling processes. By scanning envelopes, date/time stamping images, verifying signatures and sorting them into precincts, automated solutions promote an efficient and transparent vote-by-mail process. They provide the tracking and accountability necessary to validate the vote tabulation that happens later in the workflow. Correct Elect can process small or large volumes of all types of ballot envelope designs. An exclusive patent on ballot method and apparatus provides a full audit trail, ballot process management, and status reporting. As jurisdictions continue their search to ensure election integrity, exploring these technological tools becomes not just an option but a necessity. Tritek’s proprietary technology is proven in the field, trusted by election officials in numerous counties and cities across the United States. Correct Elect ballot sorting systems are highly customizable. They sort ballots based on any criteria, including precinct, name, batch size, drop box location, polling place, ZIP code, and other desired data. Multiple workstations can be used simultaneously for review, and Tritek’s systems can enforce requirements for multiple signature verifications, providing an added layer of accountability. Begin ’26 Budget Planning Now! The next general election isn’t until late ’28, but mid-term elections are coming in November 2026. Then, all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate will be contested to determine the 120th United States Congress. Thirty-nine state and territorial U.S. gubernatorial elections, as well as many state and local elections, also will be contested. U.S. citizens will cast votes in upcoming city mayoral races, too. Counties must act now to include provisions for advanced ballot-processing technology in their upcoming budgets. This foresight enables them to handle impending electoral challenges efficiently and cost-effectively, ensuring a smooth election process. Managing local elections can be particularly challenging because each jurisdiction across the country runs elections according to the laws and rules under which the election boards operate. For example, some states, such as Arizona, allow mail ballots to be dropped off at voting sites or election offices on Election Day. Those ballots need to be verified, opened, flattened and tabulated, all of which take time. Many states (including California and New York) also count mail ballots received after Election Day if they are postmarked on or before said date. With so many variables in play, automated solutions must be flexible and adapt to different conditions. With the projected increase in vote-by-mail ballot usage, a scalable solution is more important than ever. Tritek integrates its systems with any voter-registration system to ensure seamless processing. Up-to-date reports provide the number of signatures processed and, if applicable, the number of batches processed, batches still awaiting processing, and more. Will you be prepared the next time around? Studies have shown that fraud in mail-ballot voting is rare, and security measures have never been better. So perhaps, if you haven’t done so already, you should seriously consider the advantages of employing an automated voting system. VIDEO: See Correct Elect in action! READ MORE: Processing absentee ballots can create added expense for election boards. Here are some ways of making vote-by-mail economically viable.