While electronic voting can be convenient for many, it may not be accessible to everyone. Paper ballots offer an inclusive voting option for all voters and enable voters that cannot make it to a polling station to vote.
ElectionBuddy offers two types of paper ballots: Printed paper ballots and Postal paper ballots. As with the notices, the difference between the two is that ElectionBuddy mails out the postal paper ballots on your behalf, while you must distribute your own printed paper ballots. Both will come with the same notice to vote; however, the postal notice is in a letter format when paper ballots are used, as opposed to the traditional postcard notice.
Printed Notices with an Included Paper Ballot (AKA Printed Paper Ballots)
Build your ballot as required and proceed to the "Notices" stage of your setup.
Select "Printed Notices" along with any other notice type you need.
When you select "Printed Notices", a series of other options will become available. Select "Include a Paper Ballot" to include a paper ballot.
You can also include information about candidates and options. Voters will receive any available information about the candidates and options.
Optional: select "Include a tear-off section for ballot submission" to have voters return a single piece of paper to you, vs. sending back the entire ballot. This is a good option if you have a limited budget for postage, or if you want to enter ballots more quickly into ElectionBuddy once they arrive (for more details, please see Submitting Paper Ballots).
Recommended: preview your paper ballot. You can do so by selecting the "Preview" link that follows the supplementary text under "Include a Paper Ballot" (see above). This ensures that there are no surprises when you start your vote and go to start printing the ballots.
Finish up on the "Notices" page by customizing your notice templates as required, and proceed to "Voters".
Your voters who will receive printed paper ballots can be set up in the voter list by using ballot IDs (i.e. by providing a ballot ID with no contact information associated with it), or set up in the grey box that asks you how many you need (if you're only using one notice type). We always recommend that you set printed notices up in the voter list by using ballot IDs. This assists you with keeping track of your notices and ballots. If you're not using the tear-off section, use ballot IDs. You will not be able to spoil a paper ballot in ElectionBuddy without the tear-off section and without ballot IDs, as there will be no way for you to identify the voter in the voter list in order to spoil their ballot.
Postal Notices with an Included Paper Ballot (AKA Postal Paper Ballots)
Build your ballot as required and proceed to the "Notices" stage of your setup.
Select any other notice types you need (for example, to email some voters, select "Email notices), along with "Postal Notices".
When you select "Postal Notices", a series of other options will become available. Select "Include a Paper Ballot" to include a paper ballot.
Optional: select "Include a tear-off section for ballot submission" to have voters return a single piece of paper to you, vs. sending back the entire ballot. This is a good option if you have a limited budget for postage, or if you want to enter ballots more quickly into ElectionBuddy once they arrive (for more details, please see Submitting Paper Ballots).
Recommended: preview your paper ballot. You can do so by selecting the "Preview" link that follows the supplementary text under "Include a Paper Ballot" (see above). This ensures that there are no surprises when you start your vote and the ballots get sent to our printing company.
Your return address is mandatory when paper ballots are selected. Fill out the return address on the "Notice" page using the same formatting as required in the voter list.
Finish up on the "Notices" page by customizing your notice templates as required, and proceed to "Voters".
Set up your voters in the voter list with their mailing addresses and other contact information, if required (if doing a multi-channel election).
Review and start your vote. ElectionBuddy will initiate the printing and mailing process once your vote has started (unless you are delaying postal delivery to allow for electronic voting to occur first).
Estimated mail delivery dates will become visible for each voter in the voter list of the running election (on the "Results" page).
For any questions, please send us a chat using our Buddy Messenger in the bottom right of the screen.