Email System Migration FAQ

Organizations rely on email as a primary channel for notifying voters of Elections and Voting events. Optimizing deliverability is a key factor in maximizing voter awareness and member participation.

This document outlines a few reasons how deliverability can be impacted; we also discuss the options available in customizing eBallot’s Email Campaign functionality to send messages labeled with your organization’s email address or sending domain.

This document refers to emails being delivered through the Jangomail service. The recipe for a successful delivery needs at least two ingredients: the sender and the recipient. A few things can be done to mitigate issues however it’s important to understand a few of the potential causes.

Why did my email fail to send?

Most instances of missed emails occur either because the sender cannot reach the recipient or when the receiving email address has a problem identifying the sender. A few causes:

• Issue: Emails going to Spam or Strict Filters
  Generally speaking, we advise voters to check their spam or junk folders to find any such emails. Spam is categorized as messages which are successfully received but are filtered into a junk folder.
  
  
• Issue: Incorrect Email or Full Inbox
  This is less likely if voters’ emails are managed by your company or organization but is much more common when contact details are updated in a less formal manner.
  
  
• Issue: Emails are blocked by security
  Mail could be blocked by other network/security settings on the receiving mail service but, generally, these would be recognized in the bounceback report.

What can I do to avoid these issues?

Email Whitelisting

If your voters primarily use a company or organization-provided email address, you can add our sending email address to the “Safe” or allowed list of senders. By default, our emails send from noreply@eballot.com with one of the following IP ranges:

• 205.201.128.0/20
• 198.2.128.0/18
• 148.105.0.0/16

Bounceback Reports

We can provide a bounceback report for your first email blast with a list of all undeliverable emails. You can then use this to update the mailing list with correct addresses prior to any reminder emails. Please let your Account Manager know beforehand if you would like to schedule this as an initial ‘test’ notification prior to the actual voting period.

Creating or allowing a custom sender email address

It is also possible to configure your email settings so that eBallot notification emails are delivered to an address of your choosing, rather than the standard address (noReply@eballot.com). This requires coordination and effort between your IT department and eBallot but can generally be completed within 3 - 5 business days. Please see more details in the next section.

Sending emails from eBallot with a custom sender address/domain name

Ultimately, one broad solution to email deliverability issues is to send ballot related messaging with your organization’s branding or email address. For example, this means that emails would come from (Elections@Yourorganization.com) rather than (noReply@eballot.com). Before that, a few settings need to enabled to ensure a seamless delivery.

Whenever emails are sent, the receiving email service usually performs a few checks to make sure that the sender is who they say they are. SPF and DKIM records are basically digital documentation that help identify eBallot as a trusted sender that is allowed to issue emails on your behalf.

It’s important to consider if you are expecting voters to reply to this email account or if it is just to be used as a sending address. Also, your organization’s security policy may not always allow these modifications so please check first with your IT department.

If you have any further IT requirements or concerns, please get in touch with our support team.