by Pam Ness
June 7th is the Presidential Primary in California. No matter which candidate you support, the races are tight, and every vote counts. It is important that we help our seniors to vote with an absentee ballot if they are unable to easily get out to the polls on election day. While we have some time until June, the mail-in ballot procedure begins quite a bit earlier, so it’s a good idea to be prepared with relevant dates and instructions. Here’s how to vote by mail here in California.
Unless one has a permanent vote-by-mail voter status, a vote-by-mail ballot must be requested for each election. The deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is May 31, 2016.
There are several ways to request a vote-by-mail ballot. A good first step is to go to the California Secretary of State’s County Elections Offices webpage and select your county office for specific instructions:
http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/voting-resources/county-elections-offices/
California’s counties differ in their procedures. Some counties allow you to request a ballot via an online request form, or offer a phone number by which you can make the request. Some counties allow you to download and print an absentee ballot application, which can be mailed in.
It is also possible to request an absentee ballot once you receive the sample ballot mailing a few weeks before the election — there is an application page in the booklet that you can fill out and mail in requesting to vote by mail.
Once your application for an absentee ballot is processed by your county elections official’s office, an absentee ballot will be mailed to you. At the earliest, ballots are mailed out 29 days before the election, and will not be mailed to you any later than 6 days prior to election day.
After you receive your absentee ballot in the mail, it is best to vote and follow directions carefully while getting your completed ballot back in the mail. A signature is required on the envelope that returns the ballot, and the signature will be matched to the signature on file from one’s voter registration card. If you are worried about mailing the ballot back in time, mail ballots can be dropped off at your polling place during voting hours on election day.
Voting at home can be a comfortable solution for seniors who have difficulty with mobility or are ill, and allows for a more leisurely pace to review one’s options and make voting decisions.