How to cast an absentee ballot in New Hampshire for the 2022 election
The New Hampshire state primary is on Tuesday, September 13 – less than a month away. But for some residents voting is now possible. The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office distributed its mail-in ballots to cities and towns this week. Eligible voters can now apply for, receive, and cast their primary ballots.
Postal voting rules are returning to their pre-COVID 19 status after an unusual pandemic-era 2020 election that saw a record number of absentee ballots in the state.
Here’s what you need to know about absentee voting in 2022.
Who can receive voting cards?
In order to receive a postal vote, a voter needs to know that on election day they will either be absent from the city in which they live, will not be able to vote because of a disability or illness, or will be unable to vote because of their disability or occupation or duty of care or cannot appear because of a religious practice.
Postal voting is also permitted in extreme weather events. If the National Weather Service issues a winter storm, snowstorm or ice storm warning the day before the election and the person is elderly, has a disability or is facing school closures due to these weather conditions, absentee ballots can be requested a day before.
How do I get a ballot?
If a voter meets the requirements, they can apply for a postal vote by completing an application form and submitting it to the clerk’s office. This form can be picked up and handed in personally, printed out at home and sent in, or sent to the clerk by e-mail or fax. A digital copy of the application form is available on the State Department’s website.
Once the application is accepted, the ballot can either be mailed to the voter, delivered to the voter by the office, or handed to the voter in person at the office. The voter receives a ballot, an affidavit to sign certifying that they are eligible to vote in the city and have valid reason to vote absent, and an envelope.
Some voters with disabilities can also receive an electronic copy of their ballot papers, which they can fill out on their computers at home and print out themselves. See below for details on this process.
How do I cast my postal vote?
After you have filled out the ballot, completed the affidavit and placed both in the envelope provided, the ballot can be returned to the office in person or mailed to the office.
Do I have to do this myself?
no New Hampshire law allows voters to use mail carriers to submit ballot applications and turn in the ballots.
These agents may include the voter’s “spouse, parent, sibling, child, grandchild, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, step-parent, (or) step-child” to the Articles of Incorporation.
They may also include a nursing home employee or administrator, a nursing facility employee or administrator, or a person assisting a blind or disabled voter, provided the voter has signed an affidavit of consent.
What is the deadline for submitting a postal vote?
If a voter wants to cast their postal ballot in person, they must do so by 5:00 p.m. on the day before the election at the town or city’s citizens’ office. The voter can appear at the secretariat, request a ballot using the application form, and receive the ballot on the same day, provided that they vote by the 5th of April.
A voter may also dispatch a delivery agent to cast the absentee ballot at any time before 5:00 p.m. on election day. Eligible voters can also mail ballots in the mail, but ballots will only be counted if received by 5:00 p.m. on Election Day.
What if I test positive for COVID?
If a voter tests positive for COVID-19 before Election Day, they are entitled to a postal vote, Secretary of State Dave Scanlan said in an interview. A recent COVID-19 diagnosis falls within the definition of “physical disability” for absentee voting purposes, Scanlan said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who test positive for COVID-19 isolate themselves for five days.
Those who test positive can use a delivery person to submit the affidavit, collect it, and deliver the ballot.
But absentee voting isn’t available for voters who are simply concerned about contracting COVID-19 at the polls, Scanlan said, unless they have a medical condition that puts them at high risk from the coronavirus.
This is a change from the 2020 election, when the Office of the Secretary of State issued guidance allowing any voter concerned about COVID to request a postal ballot by checking the disability box on the affidavit. This guide is now complete.
What is the barrier-free electronic postal voting system and who can use it?
The Accessible Mail-by-Mail Voting System is a tool first implemented in the 2020 election that allows voters with print disabilities to receive an electronic copy of their ballot, which they can then fill out using a digital program on their computer and print at home.
The system is available to voters with medical conditions that affect their ability to read the ballot, including poor eyesight, blindness or learning disabilities.
Voters with print disabilities who can attend the ballot box in person can use One4all, an accessible voting system that uses a tablet and reads the candidate selections to that voter.
What has changed since the last national election?
In 2020, the Attorney General and Secretary of State issued guidance that due to the coronavirus state of emergency, all residents can vote by absentee by claiming a disability.
That same year, lawmakers passed legislation with a set of temporary tools that city and city elections officials could use to help with an expected spate of mail-in ballots. These tools allowed municipalities to set up mailboxes to accept mail-in ballots and gave election officials the ability to partially pre-process mail-in ballots before Election Day to reduce their workload.
Those provisions have now expired and postal voting eligibility has been restored to previous restrictions.
“The voting process in 2022 is the same as in 2018,” Scanlan said. “It’s like the COVID pandemic never happened.”
For more information on how to vote by post please visit the Department of Foreign Affairs website at https://www.sos.nh.gov/elections.
This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin.