“It has to be physically in our office by 8:30 p.m.,” Rezabek stressed.
He said local boards of elections will be working with the U.S. Postal Service to make sure near-deadline requests get to the local boards. Voters can track their absentee ballot requests through an official tool on the Secretary of State’s website.
Mailed-in absentee ballots need to be postmarked by Aug. 7 and received by local elections boards by Aug. 12 at the latest in order to count.
Rezabek said voters can also deliver their absentee ballots to the board up until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, Aug. 8. Voters who received an absentee ballot but opted not to vote that way could cast an in-person provisional ballot, which would be assessed and verified by the board in order to count.
So far, the Montgomery County board of elections has received over 9,700 absentee ballot requests — a number that, combined with early in-person voting, leads Rezabek to believe that overall voter turnout could be near 20-30% in Montgomery County in a largely incomparable single issue August special.
Boards of elections throughout the state will have extended early voting hours in the lead-up to Aug. 8. Extended hours are as follows:
- Aug. 1: 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
- Aug. 2-4: 7:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.
- Aug. 5: 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
- Aug. 6: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
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