MEMPHIS, Tennessee — When it comes to absentee voting, deadlines are important if you want your vote to count. After more than triple the number of absentee ballot requests for the Tennessee primary election, the Shelby County Election Commission has ordered 400,000 for the general election.
While absentee ballots were exceptionally popular during the primary election due to health concerns, this time around will be different. Voters, like Doris Coleman, have a lot of questions about how it will work.
"I want to know how this whole process with the mail-in," Coleman said. "It’s kind of confusing."
In Tennessee, if you request an absentee ballot, it must be returned by the U.S. Postal Service or a third party and must be in the mailbox early enough so it can be at the election commission by November 3. Many voters in this current climate are hoping to vote absentee for the general election.
"I don’t want to be around a lot of people," Coleman said. "I want to stay my distance and I think that dropping it in the mailbox would be appropriate."
In the primary, more people could vote absentee because of Covid-19 concerns, but now that's not the case. There's a list of qualifications on the application you must fit, like being 60 or older, knowing you will not be in the county on Election Day or during early voting, or you must be sick or hospitalized.
John Pruett voted absentee in the primary election because he knew he would be out of town and said the process was easy.
"It was simple," Pruett said. "We did go out to the election commission and pick up a form and we were asked some questions at the election commission about why we needed to do it by mail in."
If you request an absentee ballot and change your mind on Election Day by going in-person, you will have to fill out a provisional ballot that will not be counted that day.
To avoid people's absentee ballots being counted invalid for being late or fear it will not make it through the postal service, the Shelby County Election Commission is working on a system with a designated U.S. post office where you can drop off your absentee ballot on Election Day to be counted.