With so much happening in D.C. over the last few months, you could be forgiven for forgetting that we have an election coming up (in fact, we have two).
As coronavirus has shut down much of the District, and states around the country have been forced to reconsider their election plans, the D.C. Board of Elections is encouraging all residents to vote by mail-in ballot in the upcoming June primary and Ward 2 special elections, in step with guidance Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In D.C., that means requesting an absentee ballot, which requires no excuse or explanation.
Locals appear to be taking the message to heart. Rachel Coll, a spokesperson for the Board of Elections, says they saw “heavy influx” of applications for absentee ballots in March, and have received 34,000 requests as of this week.
And while voting by absentee ballot can add a few extra steps to the process of casting your vote, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
There are two ways Washingtonians can request absentee ballots online. They can either fill the form out at the Vote 4 D.C. website, or download and fill out a separate printable form via the Board of Elections website.
Voters should then return the form by email as a scanned attachment to DCabsentee@dcboe.org, fax the form to 202-347-2648, or mail it to the D.C. Board of Elections at 1015 Half Street, S.E., Suite 750, Washington, D.C. 20003.
Locals can also opt to fill the form out via the Vote 4 D.C. mobile app, which allows you to sign the form with your finger and send it in virtually without printing anything out. If they prefer snail mail from start to finish, they can request an application by phone at 202-741-5283.
For this election cycle, D.C. has waived its signature requirement for the application, so even if the form isn’t signed, registered voters who submit a request will still get a ballot in the mail. On the form, voters can request ballots for both the primary and the special election, and note that they’d like to receive mail-in ballots in future elections.
Coll says the advantage of using the Vote 4 D.C. portal, either on the website or the mobile app, is that it puts you in the system, so the Board of Elections can see if you begin but don’t finish the application process. “If we don’t receive the final form,” says Coll, ” That is something where our office…would reach out and say, ‘Hey, you’ve begun this form. Do you want an absentee ballot or not?,'” whereas there is no way to track the PDFs on the Board of Elections website.
There is also a separate form for military service members and their family members or other U.S. citizens living overseas, which is available through the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s website.
Once you’ve submitted the form, it takes about two weeks to get your ballot. You can track the status of your application online and see whether your ballot has been mailed out.
Normally, Coll says, applications should show up in the tracking system within 24 to 48 hours. There is currently a temporary backup because of the large influx of forms they received in March, so it could take up to two weeks.
Coll says voters will receive a paper ballot that must be filled out with a pen, not a pencil. They can either mail the envelope, which is postage-paid, to the Board of Elections office or bring it to a vote center. Each ballot also includes an “I Voted” sticker.
There are two parts of the process that tend to trip applicants up. First, Coll says, while the signature requirement for the application has been waived, voters must still sign the envelopes of their ballots. “That signature is very much still necessary,” she says. “And people are getting confused, like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to sign my ballot envelope.’ You definitely do.”
Additionally, she says, if there is a mix-up, either on the voter’s part or on the part of the board, and applicants don’t receive a ballot for some reason, they can still vote in person on election day. Vote centers will be offering curbside assistance, providing protective equipment, and are taking measures to limit the number of voters inside at one time.
The deadline to submit applications for mail-in ballots for the June 2 primary is May 26, and ballots must be postmarked before or by election day. But Coll recommends that voters request their ballots sooner rather than later, to avoid any issues or delays. “Just do it right now,” says Coll. “What are you waiting for?”
