Secretary of State Puts Statewide Ballot Tracking System Out to Bid

The California Secretary of State is out to bid for its statewide Ballot Tracking System (BTS) for vote-by-mail.

The “Where’s My Ballot?” tool, launched in 2020 amid the pandemic and a consequent surge of mail-in voting, for the first time allowed voters to sign up for automatic updates by email, text message and phone call about the status of their ballots. The Secretary of State has now put out a Request for Quotes (RFQ) seeking ballot-tracking managed software as a service for 2024 as the state looks to run elections at all levels.

Per the RFQ, the BTS must be capable of providing the same level of service to all 58 counties, from the nearly 10 million people in Los Angeles County to the 1,000 people in Alpine County. The system must be capable of sending notifications throughout the steps of the vote-by-mail process, from the time the county delivers a ballot to the U.S. Postal Service to the time the ballot is counted (or a notification that it hasn’t been counted, along with follow-up information).

Because the system interfaces with every county in the state, the contract calls on the vendor to work directly with county staff on training, data transfer and more. The Secretary of State is also asking for web-based portals or dashboards to allow for notification management, message uploads, data downloads, reporting and other items.

The RFQ also calls for a dashboard allowing voters to manage notification preferences, check on their ballot’s status and find information about their county’s participation in the system.

Notifications must be delivered in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, Khmer, Hindi, Thai and other languages as needed.

More detail about RFQ #23-026 can be found on the CaleProcure website here by searching for Event ID 0000029168.

The contract will run from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2024. Questions are due Nov. 1, quotes are due by 4 p.m. Nov. 16, and the Secretary of State plans to issue a Notice of Intent to Award on Nov. 22. Questions should be submitted by email to ContractServices@sos.ca.gov.