AUGUST 2020
WEATHER
21-23 WEEKEND EDITION
TODAY
FRIDAY
100/71
100/75
SATURDAY
100/75
LEGEND PLUMBING & ROOTER Lic # ML-16126 830 • 303 •3335 B
By o you ht T g u ro
The Voice of Seguin Today
Volume 55 • Number 159 830 • 379 • 2234
Guadalupe County Elections Office talks mail-in ballots, curbside voting
Elections administrator urges voters to not delay action in applying or returning their marked ballot slower-than-normal delivery times. Hayes says the current operation of the postal service has been raising questions about whether ballots will reach the elections office in time to be counted.
By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera
Guadalupe County Elections Administrator Lisa Hayes says while her office is equipped to handle the anticipated increase in the request for the absentee ballots, there is still a concern about whether or not the U.S. Postal Service will be able to guarantee their delivery in time for the Nov. 3 General, Presidential Election.
(Seguin) -- If you are planning to cast your vote by way of mail-in ballot, or even if you are just thinking about “maybe” requesting a mail-in-ballot for this November’s election, then you will want to take note of potential dates and times, that are all vitally important to ensuring That’s because the postal service has that your vote actually counts. faced several budget cuts, resulting in
“I would just like voters who are considering a mail-in ballot to go ahead and send their applications in as soon as possible. If they are not sure if they already have a mail-in ballot already on file because sometimes that happens voters will apply for a mail-in ballot and forget -- if they want to call and check to see if they have one on file, they have to apply for it. It’s not something that is renewed automatically every year. So, it has to be something they’ve done. But, if they want to check on that, that’s fine. If they want to request a mail-in ballot application also, great. I encourage all of this to happen as soon as possible. We will begin to mail ballots on Sept. 19. At that point, voters still have 45 days to get the ballots back to us. That’s the ideal situation right there -- to have your ballot mailed out to you on Sept. 19, vote it and then get it right back. The applications are coming in hot and heavy for ballot by mail. The voters are very interesting in using this so this is keeping us extremely busy which we
Kelly Wagner 830-832-3276
like which means that voters want to vote but it’s going to take us longer to process them. The closer we get, the more we get. It’s going to slow things down things just a little bit and so we want to do everything we can to get the voter’s ballot to them as soon as possible,” said Hayes.
Hayes says deadlines for mail-in ballots will be more important than ever to help with the increase in mail-in ballots that are expected to flood post offices all over. “One, let’s talk about the deadline to apply for a ballot by mail. So, if they are going to apply for a ballot by mail and they don’t get to do it ahead of time, then it needs to be in our office, the application for mail by ballot needs to be in our office by Oct. 23. So, that’s the first deadline we want to talk about because it can’t be postmarked by the 23rd, the application, it needs to be in our office by Oct. 23 and once early voting starts, an application for ballot by mail cannot be walked in to our office, it must come in through the mail. So anytime up until early voting starts, they can hand walk their application for ballot by mail into our office so that’s something to keep in mind,” said Hayes.
Now although, mail-in ballots will still be accepted after election day, Hayes says their ability to be delivered on time by the post office could also factor into whether or not they are actually counted. She says that’s why those requesting mail-in-ballots should just aim at getting them turned back into her office as soon as possible. “If a voter is going to mail their ballot back to us, again, we encouraging them to do it early. Send it back way early so that you know it’s here but if that doesn’t happen, they need to make sure the ballot is postmarked by 7 p.m. on election day. It is not something I’d recommend leaving until the last minute so if it’s postmarked by 7 p.m. on election day, we can accept it until close of business on the 5th of November but I would not recommend taking that route. I don’t think voters should be taking that kind of chance. I think whether they want to walk the ballot in or mail it earlier, I wouldn’t recommend that they wait until election day to put it in the mail but if they do that, they need to walk it in and make sure it gets postmarked,” said Hayes. See BALLOT, page 2