Local elections for my town are this coming Tuesday. My college student’s absentee ballot arrived at the student mail center this morning. Leaving aside the fact that he’s already left for spring break, even if he were on campus, it’s unlikely he’d be able to get it back in time to be counted on Tuesday.
When I called the town office to ask, I was told the ballots weren’t mailed out until this past Tuesday - exactly one week before election day. They had all sorts of excuses as to why they couldn’t mail them earlier, but - bottom line - they didn’t go out 'til Tuesday. “No problem,” I said, “you’ll simply delay counting the absentee ballots until they’re returned, right?” No, they won’t. By state law, they are not permitted to count any absentee ballot that’s returned after 5 p.m. on election day.
I am, at the moment, waiting for a call back from the state attorney general’s office . . . but I’m fuming. Seems to me that in a situation like this, federal law should trump state law. After all, it’s pretty clear that the affected voters, if they’re not allowed to vote, would have a viable claim against the town for violating their civil rights. Granted, this is a local election, and no one likely gives a darn . . . but imagine if it were a state or national election - the you-know-what would really be hitting the fan! So doesn’t it make more sense to just nip this in the bud, and count the darned votes when they come in?
Am I wrong?
Could be one of two things:
a. Incompetence or just not thinking things through.
b. A deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for some demographics to vote.
It’s the former and not the latter - although the actual incompetence lies somewhere other than with the town clerk. Regardless, someone didn’t do things in a timely fashion, and here we are.
The question is, now that we’re in this situation, can the town clerk deliberately violate state law (barring the counting of ballots received after 5 pm on election day) in order to avoid violating the voting rights of its absentee voters?
I’m sorry this happened…but…
Absentee ballots are not mailed here until later either. This is because the bsentee ballot needs to be the same as the others…and there can be changes to the ballot up until a short time before the voting day.
Yes, I hear you…it’s annoying. But it’s also not the registrars fault that your kid is on spring break.
My kids sent absentee ballots back priority mail if they received them on the late side. Two day delivery.
All that aside, I believe your state voting laws will be the ones that apply. And especially because if this is a state election.
I think there should be a more efficient way of doing this…but it is what it is.
The only exception…for presidential elections, folks living overseas get a ballot with ONLY the presidential candidates on it. These are sent a month before the election…and are hand counted.
I could be mistaken, but I believe that’s what’s known as a poll tax. In other words, if your kids are barred from voting unless they pay for the privilege, that’s against the law. And being forced to pay for priority or overnight mail is, in my opinion, no different than being forced to pay at the door. Ballots should be sent out in time that they can be returned in a timely fashion without the voter having to pay a priority or overnight mail surcharge.
And, no it’s not the town clerk’s fault that my kid is on spring break. But even if he were on campus, it’s unlikely he’d have been able to get the ballot back in time, even if he picked it up, filled it out, and dropped it back in the mail again immediately.
And state and local elections are still governed by federal voting laws.
Wouldn’t a US citizen living outside the US get an absentee ballot for the last state s/he lived in while in the US, using normal absentee ballot procedures for that state’s statewide elections (since voting for presidential electors is a statewide election)?
@ucbalumnus
The candidates for president are well known far further in advance. Thus the “overseas ballot” for presidential elections that has the presidential candidates on it only.
When my kid was in the Peace Corps, she got this ballot. Request was made through our local registrars, and town clerks. But because it was being sent overseas, just the presidential candidates were on it. The other things were not finalized on the ballot when these needed to,be mailed.
@dodgersmom you might want to contact the the Secretary of State in your state. Where I am, that is,the person in charge of voting, and voting regulations…not the attorney generals office.
Is there a federal/state RIGHT to absentee voting? I think it is a convenience most states allow, but not sure it is required to be provided by law. I’m been in places where there is early/absentee voting up to 6 weeks before the election or only a week before. I’ve lived in places where the absentee ballots are only counted if the outcome could change if they are counted - like if only 5% of ballots are absentee but the election was decided by 10%, none of the absentees are counted.
For caucus states, I’m pretty sure you have to show up and vote in person. When I’ve been to caucus, we didn’t count any absentee ballots. The people at the table decided everything that night.
Good question, but I’m reasonably sure the answer is yes. Early voting, such as you described, is not the same as absentee voting. And not counting the absentee ballots if they’re not going to impact the outcome . . . well, that seems to make sense.
@thumper1 - Yep, contacted the Secretary of State’s office, but was referred to the attorney in the attorney general’s office who handles election issues.
One cannot be denied the right to vote for president. Local elections are not the same. State guidelines would be what governs these.
Caucuses are also within-party votes, so they may not necessarily have to conform to the same election rules that general election votes have to conform to.
@dodgersmom Have you contacted the town moderator or whoever in your town is responsible for running the town’s election process? Might not help for this Tuesday’s election but there should definitely be some pressure to get the process revamped and get it fixed for the future.
Start with the registrar of voters. Typically in small,towns, they are the folks who are in charge of actually running the elections.
Moderators are selected for each voting day…and are in charge of the polls on voting day. They do not set policy…they follow it.
It is probable that the actual ballot was sent by your town clerks office in keeping with a guideline set up by your state so…contact your town clerk.
“Moderators are selected for each voting day”
It varies by state, @thumper1. In my state, moderators are elected and serve the purpose of running elections, sharing some of the duties with elected town clerks.
At issue is the town clerk’s unwillingness to violate state law barring them from counting absentee ballots that arrive late. Anything short of a directive from the Secretary of State or the Attorney General’s office is unlikely to convince her otherwise. I’m just of the opinion that where the delay was caused by the town, a different rule should apply.
And the town clerk acknowledges that the ballots were sent out late.
They are required to count the ballots by a certain time. They also cannot count ballots received after a specified deadline.
Call your state legislator (i.e., the representative for your state senate or assembly or whatever it’s called district). He or she might have suggestions for resolving the immediate problem or might be willing to take this up as a legislative priority (e.g., changing the state law on counting ballots).
“At issue is the town clerk’s unwillingness to violate state law barring them from counting absentee ballots that arrive late. Anything short of a directive from the Secretary of State or the Attorney General’s office is unlikely to convince her otherwise”
I kind of don’t blame her. That would open a huge can of worms not to play by the rules. I would continue to push it but not so much with an eye to getting it counted this time (not because your point doesn’t have merit, just being pragmatic) but to get it resolved so it doesn’t happen again. What caused them to get ballots out late and who was responsible for that?
Your town election folks will,get in BIG TROUBLE if they don’t adhere to,the guidelines for absentee ballot counting in your state. Big trouble.
But that doesn’t mean the timeliness of these ballot mailings should not be questioned.