Early Voting, Mail-in Voting, and Drop Boxes: The Rules in Each Battleground State

Many Americans yearn for a simple, one-day election. For now, though, national elections are sprawling, weeks-long “election seasons” that differ significantly from place to place.

Voting in America’s major battleground states is varied and, in some cases, controversial. All seven allow for “no-excuse” absentee or mail-in voting, meaning any registered voter can vote by mail (without needing an excuse such as disability or unavailability). Virtually all permit drop boxes.

Less controversially, under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), ballots are often sent to military and overseas voters weeks earlier than other voters.

In-person early voting will start throughout most battlegrounds by mid to late October.

Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have no formal in-person early voting. However, voters there, as in most other battleground states, can deliver mail-in ballots by hand to local election offices and drop boxes.

However, challenges to candidates’ nominations have kept Pennsylvania’s Department of State from confirming the certified candidates.

The start of mail-in voting in the Keystone State is still up in the air.

In Wisconsin, ballot drop boxes outside municipal clerk offices were illegal until July 2024, when the state supreme court overruled its 2022 decision restricting them.

An emergency early voting period begins on Nov. 1 and lasts through 5 p.m. on Nov. 4, the day before Election Day, for voters who are “experiencing an emergency between 5 p.m. on the Friday preceding the election and 5 p.m. on the Monday preceding the election.”

In addition, Arizona counties begin sending out absentee ballots on Oct. 9 to voters who make a one-time request or who are on the state’s Active Early Voting List.

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Oct. 9 is also when voters can start mailing those ballots back or placing them in drop boxes.

The deadline for ballots to reach officials is 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The Arizona Elections Procedure Manual charges local government units that have drop boxes with “develop[ing] and implement[ing] procedures to ensure [their] security.”

Conservative groups’ drop box monitoring in the state in 2022 was marked by controversy.

“To come out and pretend like you recognize the problem and that you want to help is so disingenuous when you’re a part of the problem,” Aaron Thacker, a spokesman for Fontes, said in response to the CPAC letter.

Georgia

Oct. 15 marks the start of in-person early voting in the Peach State, where it’s also called advance voting.

State law mandates at least one drop box per county, while county registrars have some discretion to add more based on population or advance voting site numbers.

Georgia voters must request absentee ballots to receive them. They will be sent out starting on Oct. 7.

Voters can mail in those ballots, hand-deliver them to their county registrar, or drop them at a drop box in their county.

The deadline for receipt is the close of polls on Election Day. Absentee ballots received after that date must be destroyed.

Michigan

In Michigan, communities may provide early in-person voting as soon as Oct. 7, 29 days before Election Day.

A mandatory early voting period commences nine days ahead of Nov. 5, on Oct. 26.

Early in-person voting is still a novelty in Michigan.

Voters approved it through a November 2022 ballot initiative, Michigan Proposal 2, that amended the state constitution.

The measure also mandated drop boxes be placed in every municipality in the state and enabled voters to join a permanent absentee ballot list.

Drop boxes must stay open 24 hours a day starting 40 days before Election Day, or Sept. 26, and until 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Absentee ballots also have to be available from that date.

The election clerk must receive those absentee ballots prior to the close of polls on Election Day. Otherwise, the ballots won’t be counted.

Per state law, drop boxes must be video monitored on Election Day and over the preceding 75 days.

But there’s an exception for drop boxes ordered or installed before Oct. 1, 2020, that lasts until Jan. 1, 2026, more than a year after Election Day 2024.

For now, those drop boxes have been grandfathered in and need not be video monitored.

Nevada

In-person early voting in Nevada starts on Oct. 19 and continues through Nov. 1.

The state has universal mail-in voting. All active registered voters will receive a ballot in the mail unless they opt out.

Those ballots must be prepared and distributed to in-state voters “not later than 20 days before the General Election”—in this case, by Oct. 16.

If they are hand delivering mail-in ballots to drop boxes or county clerks, they must do so by the close of polls on Election Day—7 p.m.

If they are mailing those ballots, they must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by 5 p.m. on Nov. 9, four days after the election.

Drop boxes are located at all polling places, including early voting polling places.

The statute does not mandate video monitoring, though it does call for drop boxes to be made of “metal or any other rigid material of sufficient strength and resistance to protect the security of the mail ballots.”

North Carolina

In-person early voting starts in North Carolina on the third Thursday before Election Day.

This year, that is Oct. 17.

That period ends at 3 p.m. on Nov. 2. Absentee voting would normally be starting much sooner.

Counties were preparing to send absentee ballots earlier this month, in line with state law requiring those ballots be sent 60 days ahead of Election Day in an even-numbered year.

But after the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled to strike Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from ballots, county boards of elections throughout the state are printing new ballots.

According to a press release from the North Carolina State Board of Elections, that’s likely to occur “in the next couple weeks.”

North Carolina’s absentee ballots must also be completed with either two witnesses or a notary public observing. Witnesses should track the fact that the ballot is marked but not how the person votes.

The state has greatly tightened its election laws in recent years, including through a voter ID requirement for mail-in voters.

Drop boxes aren’t permissible for absentee voting in the state. Voters can hand off absentee ballots to the county board by 7:30 p.m., Election Day, or at early voting locations during the early voting window.

Mailed absentee ballots must be received by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.

A recent bill from the Republican-dominated state Legislature removed a three-day grace period for ballots postmarked by Election Day.

Although Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, vetoed the measure, lawmakers overrode his veto in late 2023.

Pennsylvania

In-person early voting is not technically an option in Pennsylvania. However, as discussed above, voters can start returning mail-in or absentee ballots in person weeks before Election Day.

Until candidate nomination challenges are resolved, however, mail-in and absentee ballots will not be available to Pennsylvanians.

Election officials must receive mail-in and absentee ballots by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, Election Day.

“A postmark by 8 p.m. Nov. 5 is not sufficient,” a state elections webpage notes.

Pennsylvania State Senate Bill 99, reintroduced earlier this year after passing the Senate under a different name in 2022, aims to get rid of drop boxes and satellite election offices.

Counties in the state are currently permitted to operate such sites.

As in North Carolina, Kennedy is challenging his continued presence in the election after dropping out.

He has filed an appeal with the state’s District 2 Court of Appeals after the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) voted in late August to leave him on ballots there.

Once official ballots are in, municipal clerks must send absentee ballots by Sept. 19 to voters with requests on file.

They must be returned to those clerks by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.

Drop boxes are legal in the state thanks to a July ruling from the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

“The decision held that state law permits clerks to lawfully utilize secure drop boxes.

“The decision did not provide guidance on what it means for a drop box to be ‘secure,’” WEC wrote in July guidance on the ruling.

It went on to recommend best practices for drop box security.

Original News Source Link – Epoch Times

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