Military and other overseas ballots are covered by federal legal provisions - see https://www.fvap.gov/info/laws/uocava
I believe that the federal law sets the time frame for mailing & receipt of those ballots.
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I received my ballot 2 days ago (California), and will be putting it in a dropbox at City Hall tomorrow (Monday).
H and I received our ballots last week. My H has been on permanent absentee ballot for years, until last year I used to enjoy going to vote in person. I opened the ballot last night and the county included extra sheet of paper that lists all the places in the county that you can return your ballot. The list is in English on one side and Spanish on the other. We have plenty of options nearby to return our ballot. I can’t imagine how some states limit the number of boxes.
I had to talk to 3 people but I think I have an explanation.
I have always voted in person and only applied for absentee voting during the beginning of the pandemic after Michigan’s primary.
I do not know what happened to my original application except that it was received and was filed to my voter registration page that I checked after @kelsmom gave me the site for.
But I found out that in Michigan it is up to the individual township clerk whether or not they keep a database of absentee voters. My township clerk does not. So even though I am on the permanent absentee voter roles, in my particular township, I need to reapply for my absentee ballot for each and every election.
I thought I had a voting plan, I did apply to vote absentee. It was registered but I also need to reapply for each and every election that I wish to vote absentee. This is not the case for the entire state as each voting township has a different rule on how to vote. My in laws for instance, get a ballot for every election, they don’t have to do anything. Their clerk has a database and sends them a ballot.
It didn’t help that I suspect that my local clerk threw out my original application and since I had never voted absentee I had no idea that I had to reapply without ever getting a ballot in the mail ever.
The township clerk said that I wasn’t the only person who was confused, that she has had lots of calls.
Making a separate post. As my husband said, we could vote in person.
But as I understand it, since the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the governor’s emergency declarations are invalid. That now it will be up to every county to decide if there is a mask mandate or not.
I am positive that my county will not have a mask mandate. It makes voting in person a little more problematic
I live in Missouri, and the coverage of this election is the first I have heard of voting boxes. We vote by mail or at the election board offices in my county. So imagine that 50 states have 50 different processes, plus differences among cities and counties.
Because it is a big effort to keep the ballot boxes manned. In Colorado we’ve been doing the vote by mail (but most people return to a ballot box) they have to be lit and have a security camera 24/7. To empty the boxes, there is a two person team that comes to the box, takes out the ballots, puts them into a container with with a zip tied lock. They sign the tag and take them to the county clerk. Colorado can afford that because we don’t have that many polling places like we used to. I drop mine at a rec center box that is also a polling place. There used to be 20-30 voting booths inside and dozens of poll watchers. Now there are about 5 machines because very few people vote in person.
On election day and the days just prior, the teams visit the boxes several times a day.
It’s a system that works but it takes some planning. A lot of the states, cities and towns weren’t prepared for it this year, don’t have the boxes, the cameras for security, or a system to empty the boxes securely.
Colorado has been voting by mail for about 10 years I think. It’s changed a lot. We used to have the 2 envelop system Pennsylvania is struggling with now. I think we used to put in a copy of our DL or ID (can’t really remember) or had a witness. In the primaries, Republicans and Dems got different ballots and Independent got none at all. Now everyone gets both Dem and Rep ballots, but you can only return one. There have been changes to the signatures, etc. They refine it every time to make it easier and to get more votes counted.
Some states are just at the beginning of the process. NY screwed up this primary season because NY law requires a postmark but NY metered the return envelopes so there were no postmarks. Those are the things they will fix by the next election (change the requirement or don’t meter the mail) but they won’t know until they have a problem.
Colorado has always sent the ballots out by bulk mail and we have had no problems with receiving them on time, but this year they are being sent out first class mail in an abundance of caution.
You can request an absentee ballot, but that is a one-time thing. The absentee ballot is sent to an address other than the one you are registered to vote from, so the theory is you just want one ballot mailed to this temporary address, that if that is your new permanent address you should permanently change your registration. Even college kids are unlikely to live at the same address two elections in a row without that being a permanent address.
@deb922 , wow … I didn’t know that the clerk could make that decision! I don’t like that.
My county has a mask mandate that was instituted after the decision last week to limit the Governor’s power. But it specifically exempts the order in polling places (which, by the way, the Governor’s current mask mandate does, as well). That is why I am voting by mail (first time since college was the August primary). I live in an area where many people are against mask wearing.
Plan to vote when the polls open, in person with a mask, hand sanitizer and my own pen.
However, since doing that is typically a local responsibility, why would the state impose a restriction on the number of drop boxes per county? The county governments should be able to figure out how many boxes they have funding to install, secure, and service. A high population county may want more boxes to avoid having any get filled up too quickly between servicing, and a large sparsely populated county may want more boxes to put them in reasonable range of more of its population.