Where Is My Absentee Ballot And How Can I Still Vote?

Voting in the primary election is well underway. Early voting wraps up this weekend and then more polling sites open citywide on the actual Primary Day, June 23rd. Meanwhile, city and state election officials are awash in absentee ballots as voters who were urged to stay home during the coronavirus crisis opted to mail in their choices for elected office. 

With all that’s going on, including several hotly contested races for the state legislature and U.S. Congress on the ticket, we’ve been fielding questions. Among them, many voters are asking why they haven’t received their absentee ballot. 

Here are some quick tips to help make sure your vote is counted, pandemic be damned!

I applied for an absentee ballot ages ago and it still hasn’t arrived. What do I do?

We’re not going to tell you these options are ideal, but here’s what you can do. First, the most responsive contacts at the New York City Board of Elections are on Twitter. You can tweet @BOENYC and tell them you haven’t received your ballot. They will ask you to direct message them your name and address and they will check on the status of your ballot. 

Every time a voter applies for an absentee ballot, staff at the BOE need to look that person up, confirm they are registered in a party with a primary and then that information gets sent to one of two vendors - Fort Orange Printing in Albany or Phoenix Graphics in Rochester. Those vendors have been contracted to actually print and mail the actual ballots and envelopes. One unsatisfying answer you may get is that your application is “in the queue” for processing. That means, the vendor has your name on its list, and they are furiously trying to get all the ballots mailed. 

Based on data from the BOE on June 17th, they mailed ballots to nearly 95 percent of people who applied for one. That’s little comfort if you are among the almost 30,000 people still waiting to receive a ballot.

What do I do if I’m still waiting?

You have options. You could wait and see if the absentee ballot arrives in the mail as late as Tuesday. Then you would need to fill it out immediately and either take it to a post office so it is postmarked no later than June 23rd, or you could drop it off at your poll site. If you don’t feel like waiting (and who could blame you?), early voting continues through Sunday afternoon. Find your early voting site here, check the candidates on your ballot here and then go vote at a time that works for you before Sunday at 4 p.m. You can also just go to your assigned poll site on Tuesday.

Is there anything I should keep in mind when I fill out the absentee ballot?

Yes! Be precise: there can be no stray marks or attempted erasures on the ballot itself. You must sign and date the envelope you place the ballot into. You cannot seal that envelope with tape. Place the sealed ballot envelope into the postage paid mailing envelope. It must be postmarked no later than June 23rd. You could also drop it off at any BOE office or early voting site. 

While some printed election materials state that absentee ballots must by postmarked by the day before the election, the state extended the postmark deadline to June 23rd after those materials were printed. Here is the updated law signed by Governor Cuomo, which changed the postmark deadline from the day before the election to the day of the election. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Primary Day, June 23rd.

What if I already mailed my absentee ballot but I’m worried I did something wrong?

Even if you already mailed your absentee ballot, you can vote in person through early voting or on Primary Day.

Check out our 2020 Voter Guide: