Absentee and Mail-in Ballots
Gov. Tom Wolf signed the Senate bill on March 27 to postpone the Pennsylvania primary election five weeks from April 28 to June 2 due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Voters now have the alternative to voting by mail-in ballot instead of going to their designated polling place.
Now in Pennsylvania, you have two choices for ballots. You can either choose a mail-in ballot or an absentee ballot to turn into your county election office. An absentee ballot requirements are if you plan to be out of the district on the day on an election, or have an illness or disability.
People who are eligible to apply for an absentee ballot are college students who are not registered to vote at their school address, people with physical disability or illnesses that do not allow them to go to the polling office, military members and those whose work are on trips that are not in the district of their voting office.
More than 215,000 registered voters have signed up for an absentee or a mail-in ballot. The deadline for absentee ballots to be received by your local election office is on Tuesday, May 26 at 5 p.m.
To apply for an absentee ballot you must go online to VotesPA.com/ApplyAbsentee with a valid PA driver’s license or photo ID from PennDOT, or fill out and mail a paper version listing the reasons why you are not available to be at the polling place on election day. You send this application to your county election office.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is one week before the elections. Once your application is accepted, you will receive an absentee ballot with instructions from your election office.
