BALLOT RETURN TOOL

Click here to read the Ballot Return Tool Press Release

Click here for the Ballot Return Tool One Pager | Click here for the Georgia Ballot Return Tool Social Media Kit

Developed by the Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID) at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, the Ballot Return Tool is a first-of-its-kind, data-driven interactive mapping resource for visualizing early ballots cast in real time by registered voters during an election, whether the voting is done in-person or by mail.

Using publicly available voter data, the web-based Ballot Return Tool produces visualized data maps of early ballots cast by registered voters at the county or precinct level. The technology allows users to increasingly pinpoint community-level voting activities by hovering or zooming in on a particular area or neighborhood. CID updates the maps in real-time as voting data is made available.

First developed for Los Angeles County during the 2020 General Election, in partnership with the California Secretary of State's Office, the Ballot Return Tool provides election officials, community advocacy groups and the general public a better way to track voting and transparently monitor voting activity, as well as plan voter services and outreach. The Tool was most recently rolled out in the state of Georgia to assist election officials and community groups there involved in voter outreach for the January 2021 U.S. Senate runoff elections.

 The Ballot Return Tool is one of two web-based applications offered by CID to help election officials and voting advocates plan election-related decision making and outreach. The CID Voting Location Siting Tool—a web-based interactive data mapping system initially launched in California in 2018—is now available in 10 states. The Siting Tool helps communities identify accessible vote centers and polling places likely to have the most success serving voters. Its robust and detailed data maps have also been widely used to inform voter outreach efforts at the community level.