Dear Constituent,

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Vote by Mail Tracking Act to boost confidence in our elections and help Americans verify their mail-in votes are counted. The bill would add standardized official barcodes to each mail-in ballot, so voters can track their ballot’s status. 

Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-CA) is the lead sponsor of this bipartisan legislation that I am co-leading alongside Representatives Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). We introduced the bill in September 2023.

The Vote by Mail Tracking Act would help voters track their ballots and have confidence that election officials count their vote. Under this bill, each mail-in ballot envelope must:

• Contain a United States Postal Service (USPS) barcode;
  
  
• Meet USPS design requirements and standards for machinable letters, and;
  
  
• Include an Official Election Mail logo.

Some states already have ballot tracking systems available for voters to use, but in other states it can be hard to verify if a ballot arrives on time. This bill would make transparency the standard nationwide so every eligible voter trusts that their vote is safely received and processed. The Vote by Mail Tracking Act is cosponsored by 19 Members of Congress.

Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, so Congress must doggedly protect every step of the voting process. This common-sense legislation adds another safeguard to the increasingly efficient and effective mail-in balloting process — thereby strengthening the electoral process as a whole. 

I am proud to co-lead this bipartisan legislation and urge its passage in the U.S. Senate to help ensure mail-in ballots are properly delivered and counted in future elections. 

Sincerely,

Kweisi Mfume
Member of Congress