NORFOLK, Va. — If you requested to vote by absentee in North Carolina or Virginia, you can follow the status of your ballot online.
In Virginia
Some parts of Virginia, such as Arlington and Loudoun County already have a ballot tracking system in place, but a new rule makes absentee ballot tracking a statewide requirement.
All Virginia absentee ballots will have a new special US Postal Service “Intelligent Mail” barcodes and it lets officials track ballots as they make their way to voters and voters can track their ballots on their way back to the registrar’s office.
There's also a new mail-in ballot tracker website that the Virginia Department of Elections has set up, providing another way voters can follow the progress of their absentee ballots.
In North Carolina
There are three ways North Carolina voters can track their absentee ballot: BallotTrax, the State Board's Voter Search Tool, or by contacting your county board of elections office.
1. BallotTrax - Absentee voters can create an account through BallotTrax to track the status of their ballot from when it is mailed to when it is received by the county board of elections. BallotTrax also updates voters if their ballot cannot be accepted because of issues such as a missing signature or witness information. If this happens, the county board of elections will update the voter on how to correct the issue.
2. Voter Search Tool - When a county board of elections marks a ballot as Accepted, that information will appear in that voter’s record available through the State Board’s Voter Search Tool. Because absentee ballot request information is confidential under state law until the ballot is accepted or until Election Day, absentee request information does not appear in the Voter Search Tool.
If you have questions about the status of your absentee ballot that can't be answered through the other two options, you can contact your county board of elections. Keep in mind county board offices are extremely busy. Click here to look up information for your county election board office.
WFMY and WUSA contributed to this report.