Disclaimer: This post was written in early 2020 when many states made modifications in their absentee/vote-by-mail rules so voters could more safely vote during the pandemic. Many of the links in this post have likely expired. To find the most up to date voting rules in your state, visit THIS LINK and choose your state.
Do you agree that every single voter should be allowed to vote by mail this year?
If we’re being truthful, I think every registered voter should automatically have their ballot sent to them at home, but I’m also in one of the five awesome states where that already happens. Getting the entire country to adopt all-mail ballots for all future elections is a fight for another day.
However, as I noted in yesterday’s post, EVERY state offers some level of voting by mail. Voters in 26 states can request an absentee ballot for any reason (and can often request it long before the election), and 19 states offer more limited mail-in ballot options. So, your mission for the day is: Learn how to get your ballot sent to you in the mail. Do it today.
Below, you will find the direct link to that information for every state. You won’t have to click around at all — I looked up the exact page on your state’s elections website with the correct information. I am providing this link instead of sending you to a third party website, because states are still changing the rules and in nearly all cases, they are making mail-in ballots MORE available. So to be sure you have the latest and greatest information, go directly to the source.
Once you take care of yourself, please pay it forward and share this post on your social media networks so other voters can learn how to vote by mail, too.
Click your state name to learn how to vote by mail:
Arizona (scroll down to Popular Questions; click on “How do I vote by mail?”)
Colorado Registered voters automatically get mail-in ballots
Hawaii Registered voters automatically get mail-in ballots
Oregon Registered voters automatically get mail-in ballots
Utah Registered voters automatically get mail-in ballots
Washington Registered voters automatically get mail-in ballots
Note: Some states call it voting by mail, others call it absentee voting, and still others call it early voting. The terms are interchangeable.
⚡
I hope you will consider sharing this post to raise awareness for the importance of voting by mail. You can also find shareable versions of this post at:
Twitter: @DHStokyo
Facebook: Political Charge
Categories: Uncategorized
The Texas link is broken
Thank you for letting me know. Texas updated the information, which you can find here: https://www.votetexas.gov/faq/early-voting.html I’ll update the link.
LOVE THIS LIST!!!! Shared it on FB.
However, the terms voting by mail, absentee voting, and early voting are confusing and vary by state, but they are not interchangeable.
in MA, “abesentee voting” (which is what you linked us to) requires specific excuses, where as “early vote by mail” (distinct from “early voting” in person) does not, though both require applications. there is no “vote by mail” option in MA like there is in about 8 other states, and MA’s application system is all on paper, ffs.
Thanks for sharing the list, Andrea. I appreciate it. It is true that different states use different terminology. I wanted to use all of the terms so that if my readers wanted to look for additional information, they had other search terms they could try. Thank you for letting us all know more details for MA. Appreciate it!
Thank you for your work. My friends are registered to vote. Other than donating, are there specific actions or volunteer tasks one can take to help register the unregistered? I’m having a hard time figuring out how to plus into the “doing” part of this. Any guidance is much appreciated!
Yes, there sure is. I wrote this a while back but the tactics still work. 15 Ways to Register People to Vote: https://politicalcharge.org/2018/03/10/15-ways-you-can-help-get-more-people-registered-to-vote/