Absentee Voting

Apply for an Absentee Ballot

Absentee FAQs

Absentee Label Files

Absentee Voting for the Armed Forces or Overseas Citizens

Absentee Deadlines

Absentee Deadlines

To receive your absentee ballot

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. In person: You may go to the board of elections designated voting site during hours of operations 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 designated voting site.
  4. 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

  1. If returned in person, your ballot must be received by the Franklin County Board of Elections by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
  2. If by mail from anywhere in the United States, your ballot must be postmarked no later than the day before the election

    3. and received by the Franklin County Board of Elections by the 10th day after the election

  3. If voting by out of country civilian ballot or out of country military ballot, your ballot must be postmarked no later than Election Day and received by the Franklin County Board of Elections by the 10th day after the election (see above for dates).