Nov. 3 will be a fine day to vote. 

But some Onondaga County voters can’t get to the polls that day. They’re sick. Or they’re handicapped. Or they’re going out of the county on Election Day. Or they’re in the military and on duty away from Onondaga County. 

Getting absentee ballots are a simple way for them to exercise their civic duty. 

“It’s a pretty simple process,” said Michele Sardo, the secretary to the Republican elections commissioner. 

First, you have to be registered to vote. Registered voters can get an absentee ballot from the Onondaga County Board of Elections. Absentee ballot request forms are available to download and print on the election board’s Web site. 

Absentee voters can mail their ballot requests to the Onondaga County Board of Elections, in the John H. Mulroy Civic Center at 421 Montgomery St., according to the board’s Web site. But the elections board won’t accept ballot requests by fax and they can’t be submitted online.

The application for a ballot must be postmarked by Oct. 27. 

Voters or those acting on their behalf also can hand in the application for a ballot and get the ballot in person at the Board of Elections no later than Nov. 2, said Sardo, the secretary to the Republican elections commissioner.  

The request form asks voters to list why they will be out of the county and the dates of their absence.  Acceptable reasons include work, vacation, going to school out of the county, temporary illness, or permanent disability.  Disabled voters can apply to have their absentee ballots sent to them automatically

Most requests are approved, Sardo said. One of the few times absentee ballot requests aren’t approved are cases in which people are traveling on the day of the election, but won’t actually be out of the county. For example, a Le Moyne College student who is registered to vote in Clay is still living in the county, Sardo said, and would have to go back to Clay to vote. 

After receiving their absentee ballots, voters select their candidates on the absentee ballot. But don’t circle the name of the candidate, Sardo said, or the vote scanners will be unable to read the vote. “It’s like the SATs,” Sardo said. “You bubble in the circle next to their names.” 

Another common mistake, said Democratic Election Commissioner Ed Ryan, is forgetting to sign both sides of the absentee ballot when they mail it back to the Board of Elections.  “We take the signature and compare it to the ones on file,” Ryan said. “We make sure that the person who filled it out and sent it back is the same person.” 

Voters can submit their absentee ballots two ways: They can mail the ballot to the Board of Elections, postmarked by Nov. 2, or they can bring it in person to the Board of Elections up to and including the day of the election, Nov. 3.
 
Absentee ballots are counted about seven days after the election, the Republican commissioner’s secretary, Sardo, said. 

Voters can check the status of their absentee ballot on the Board of Elections Web site, said Michelle Edinger, the manager of absentee ballots for the elections board. After you fill out information on an electronic form, the Web site will tell you if the elections board has sent your absentee ballot to fill out or if the elections board has received your completed absentee ballot, Edinger said.  

(Brian Amaral is a senior majoring in newspaper journalism.)      

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