If you are registered and have a photo-id, you can walk into the Circuit Clerk’s office in the William M. Branch County Courthouse, or any other Circuit Clerk’s office in the state, and vote absentee now, early, without putting your ballot in the mail, for the November 3, 2020 General Election.
Since September 9 and until October 29, 2020, you can apply for an absentee ballot to vote in the critical November 3rd Presidential election. You have 43 days left to secure an absentee ballot. Secretary of State John Merrill and other state and national officials are urging that you apply for your absentee ballot and vote as soon as possible to avoid mail delays, which are likely to increase as we get closer to election day.
The absentee ballot process provides a way for you to walk-in to the Circuit Clerk’s office and fill out an application, specifying that you intend to be out of town on election day or you may check the SECOND box (that you cannot vote in person because of an illness) as your reason, if you fear contracting COVID-19 if you vote in person. You do not have to be ill at the time.Once you fill out the application and check the appropriate box, for the reason you need an absentee ballot, the Circuit Clerk will issue you a ballot. You can vote then and sign your outside mailing envelop and the Circuit Clerk or her designated staff will notarize your absentee ballot, and place it in the ballot box to be counted on election day. This is an easy process to vote early, vote now, and make sure your vote is counted!
If you are sick, injured, incapacitated, bedridden, staying home due to COVID-19, or are student away at a college campus, or out of town on business, you can contact the Circuit Clerk or go on-line to the Secretary of State’s website and request an absentee ballot. Make this request, as soon as possible, but certainly before the October 29th deadline.
Return your signed request to the Circuit Clerk, together with a copy of your photo-id and the clerk will send you an absentee ballot. If you are over 65 years old and give illness as your reason for needing an absentee ballot, you do not need to send in a photo-id with your application.
When you receive your absentee ballot, vote and send it in as soon as possible. It must be postmarked by November 3, 2020 or hand delivered by you, and only you, by November 2, 2020, to count in the election.
After you have voted, place your ballot in the secrecy envelop and place this envelop in the mailing envelop. The mailing envelop has an affidavit, printed on the back, which you, the voter, must sign and have witnessed by two persons or signed and sealed by a Notary Public. Your children or other relatives and friends can help you vote absentee and make sure your ballot envelop affidavit is properly completed, so your vote will be counted.
This is a complicated process and some voters mail in their ballots without signing them and having them witnessed by two people or notarized. If the affidavit envelop is not properly filled out the Absentee Ballot polling officials can disqualify the ballot and it will not be counted.
Veronica Morton-Jones Greene County Circuit Clerk says, “I am here to help you vote absentee. I will come out to your car to give you an application or take your ballot, just call me. I am willing to extend my hours and work on some Saturdays to help more Greene Countians to vote. I am working out the security for the courthouse and will let you know the additional times and dates that I will be available.”
When you vote in the November 3rd election be sure to vote for all the races down the ballot not just in the presidential race between Trump-Pence against Biden-Harris. In Alabama, there is an important contest between incumbent Democrat Doug Jones and challenger Tommy Tubberville for a U. S. Senate seat. All Congress seats in the state are on the ballot. There are judgeships, seats on the State Board of Education, a seat on the Public Service Commission, local school board members and other races are on the ballot, across the state.
There are also six statewide Constitutional Amendments to vote on at the back of the ballot. In Greene County, we also have Local Referendum No. 1 on the back of the ballot, which gives voters the chance to decide for or against, a 4 mil increase in ad valorem property tax, to support the Greene County Hospital and Health System.