The first batch of ballots have gone out to voters — those serving with the U.S. Armed Forces — for the Nov. 6 election.
Deputy County Clerk Angela Curro noted the office Friday had been set to send out the 100 ballots to eligible registered voters in the military who had requested them.
“We’re just in the process of fine turning the inserts in them, probably in the next hour or so,” Curro said late last week.
Otherwise, the office is in a “little lull” before regular mail ballots go out 29 days before the election on Oct. 8, she said. That happens to be a federal holiday, Columbus Day, so they won’t actually be delivered until Oct. 9-12, she noted.
The county normally has about 80-88 military ballots, but had exactly 100 this time around. More than half of them are received by email — which is allowed for the military ballots. Those voters must return them by fax through the Federal Voting Assistance Program, she said.
The local soldiers voting on the election are stationed “all over” the world.
“They could be domestic military here in the U.S. They can be overseas military,” she said.
She said those ballots go out earlier due to the delivery time, with some soldiers stationed in remote locations. Some take up to three or four weeks to reach the voters. Curro mentioned how one man in Australia calls every year at about 2 a.m. local time on the clerk’s office fax line, and Curro happens to be there every time. The voter always wants to make sure the county had received his ballot, and she has to remind him every year that he’s calling on a fax line.
“I pick up the phone and it’s the same guy every year,” she said. “It’s kind of comical.”
Since the soldiers can vote by fax, they waive their confidentiality rights in those cases. Still, the elections office immediately seals them into envelopes and treats them like regular ballots.
-Kollin Kosmicki
