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How to vote by mail in Texas for the November presidential elections

Interest in mail voting for the presidential elections has dramatically increased this year as COVID-19 continues to affect the country.

Here’s a guide to help navigate mail voting, now that mail ballots have started going out in Texas.

Who qualifies

Texas does not allow “no excuse” mail voting. To qualify, Texans must fall under one of these circumstances:

  • Be 65 or older.
  • Plan to be away from your county of residence for the duration of the election (this will include members of the military, college students, and those stationed overseas for work).
  • Have a disability.
  • Be confined in jail without having been finally convicted of a felony.

Recent lawsuits have tried to expand mail voting to all voters during the pandemic, but those efforts have been stalled by courts. The Supreme Court of Texas has said that lack of immunity to COVID-19 alone does not qualify a person to vote by mail. Voters must have another physical condition that prevents them from going to the polls because of risk to their health.

But the court has not specified what those conditions are. It has left that determination up to voters, who risk violating state law.

How to apply

Election officials in Dallas County will not send a voter a mail ballot unless one is requested.

To request the mail ballot, you can download the Application for Ballot By Mail at DallasCountyVotes.org, fill it out and mail it back to the county elections office. The application provided by the Dallas County Elections Department will require postage.

You can also download a similar application from the Texas secretary of state’s office at VoteTexas.Gov. However, the application will require the voter to fill out the address for their county’s early voting clerk. The application provided by the state will also require postage.

The last day to request a mail ballot is Oct. 23, though you have to be registered to vote by Oct. 5.

In July, the U.S. Postal Service warned more than 40 states, including Texas, that its rules for mail voting created a risk that some ballots requested on the last day of the deadline would not be counted.

Now, the Postal Service is asking voters to give themselves and election officials “ample time to complete the process” by requesting mail ballots at least 15 days before Election Day.

Voting advocates also urge people to request their mail ballots well ahead of time.

“We’re really focused on making sure people submit their application for a mail ballot as early as possible,” said Suzy Smith, co-founder of Vote From Home 2020, who said voters should begin requesting them now. “More people are voting absentee this year. We want to make sure that people can get their applications well ahead of the deadline.”

How to vote

Once you’ve received your ballot, fill it out and return it as soon as possible to avoid any problems reaching the elections office on time, mail voting advocates say.

In a recent mailer, the postal service recommended mailing ballots at least seven days before the election. But voting groups are pushing voters to send ballots much earlier, noting that late arrival is the top reason for mail ballot rejections.

With an increase in mail voters and potential delays in the postal service, that problem could be amplified this year.

Smith’s group recommends that voters mail their ballots by Oct. 15 to give the postal service enough time to process and deliver them on time. Vote From Home 2020 is also encouraging voters to submit their ballots at “drop boxes” in their counties if they are available.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order to allow voters to drop off their mail ballots at their county’s early voting clerk’s office any time during early voting or election day because of the pandemic. In Dallas, that’s at the elections office at 1520 Round Table Drive. Abbott’s order also extended the early voting, which will run from Oct. 13 to Oct. 30, by six days.

Voters must still carry one of the seven approved forms of voter ID to drop off their ballots in person.

But before mailing or delivering their ballots, Smith said, voters should make sure they have signed the back of the return envelope. Not signing that envelope is the second major reason mail ballots get rejected, she said.

In order to count, ballots that are not postmarked must be received by the elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Those that are postmarked have until 5 p.m. the day after.

Ensuring your vote is counted

In Dallas County, you can check with the elections department to make sure your mail ballot was received.

During the July primary runoffs, some mail ballots that were returned to the senders and then sent back to the elections office were not received in time to be counted. To avoid that, mail voters can check with the elections office to see if their ballot has been received.

Every day, the county elections office publishes online the mail ballots received by precinct. You can search for that information at DallasCountyVotes.org or you can call the elections office at 469-627-8683.

Important dates:

Oct. 5 — Last day to register to vote.

Oct. 13 — Early voting starts.

Oct. 23 — Last day to apply to vote by mail.

Oct. 30 — Early voting ends.

Nov. 3 — Election Day.

Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. — Postmarked mail ballots must be received to be counted.

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