Absentee Deadlines
To receive your absentee ballot:
- By mail: Unless you are a member of the U.S. armed forces, you must mail your properly completed absentee ballot application bearing your original signature to the county board of elections in which your voting residence is located. The board must receive your request by noon on the Saturday before the election. However, you should submit your request as far in advance of the election as possible.
- By fax: If you are a member of the U.S. armed forces or organized state militia, you may fax your absentee ballot request to the board of elections in which your voting residence is located. The board must receive your request by noon on the Saturday before the election. You may request that the board fax your ballot to you, but you must return your marked ballot by mail.
- In person: You may go to the board of elections office during regular business hours after absentee ballots are available for voting, but no later than the day before the election, and request, receive and immediately vote your ballot at the board office.
- In hospital on Election Day: Regardless of where you are hospitalized, you must submit a properly completed and signed request to the county board of elections in which your voting residence is located by 3 p.m. on Election Day. To be eligible under this provision, you must be confined in a hospital because of an unforseeable medical emergency. Your application must specify where, why and when you came to be hospitalized. If you are hospitalized in the same county where you are registered to vote, two representatives of the board of elections can deliver the ballot to you and return it to the board office. You may include in your absentee ballot application a request that your county board of elections give your unmarked ballot to a designated relative - your spouse, father, mother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, grandfather, grandmother, brother, sister, son, daughter, adopted parent, adopted child, stepparent, stepchild, uncle, aunt, nephew or
niece - who shall deliver the ballot to you in the hospital and return it to the board office after you have voted it. The ballot must be returned to the Board of Elections by 7:30 PM the day of the election.
For your absentee ballot to be counted, it must be received as follows:
- If cast from anywhere in the United States, whether returned in person or by mail, your ballot must be received by your county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. on election day.
- If properly returned from out-of-country, your ballot must be received by your county board of elections not later than the 10th day after the election (20th day for a Presidential Primary) and must be postmarked on or before the date of the election.
Absentee Voting