You Received a Mail-In Ballot but Didn’t Mail it In. Now What?

By • Nov 3rd, 2009 • Category: Blog, News, Politics

Canvassers for the gubernatorial candidates this year were aggressively pushing the state’s new vote-by-mail option as a good (and no-risk) alternative to heading to the polls. As of late last week, about 175,000 voters had signed up for the option, but only about 100,000 had sent in the ballots.

So what happens if you wake up today and realize you never sent in the vote-by-mail ballot?

The good news is you still have options.

The most straightforward option is to hand-deliver the ballot to the Board of Elections (257 Cornelison Ave., 4th Floor) by 8 pm tonight. You can send it via messenger or drop it off yourself. If you send via messenger, that person has to print and sign his or her name and include his or her address on the outside of the envelopes in the presence of the voter — that’s you. Verification will occur at the board of elections when the messenger drops off the envelope.

Another relatively easy option is to vote at the polls. The poll workers should identify you as a vote-by-mail voter, and you have to certify to them that you haven’t already cast your mail-in ballot. You’ll then vote via provisional ballot, which will be counted after Hudson County confirms it hasn’t received your mail-in ballot.

If you have any problems voting or questions, remember, you can call the NJ ACLU and League of Women Voters’ Voter Protection Hotline at 1-800-792-VOTE (8683).

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is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent; he now works for a public-policy nonprofit in Trenton.
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  • Buffy

    Hey, This happened to me. I was identified as an absentee voter at the polls after I was pushed by a canvasser to sign up for the vote by mail option. I had no idea that when I signed up for the mail in option I would be listed as an absentee voter.

    When I got to the polls today I told the poll workers I hadn’t mailed in my ballot and I was allowed to vote regular-style (at the voting machine), not by provisional ballot. Seems to me that the canvassers should not have been pushing this option without explaining it more clearly. And clearly there is confusion among poll workers if I was permitted to vote by machine when they should have given me a provisional ballot.
    - Buffy