General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Here's what happens when spineless Democrats refuse to fix problems: [View all]Ms. Toad
(34,069 posts)Last edited Mon Oct 22, 2012, 12:14 PM - Edit history (1)
The law changed a few years ago to permit no fault absentee voting. However you vote early (entirely by mail, picking up a paper ballot and mailing it back, picking it up and filling it out in a single trip to the BOE receiving it by mail and hand carrying it into your BOE, or on the machines in advance of election day) is all absentee voting, from a legal perspective.
And the form confuses a lot of people because they hear early voting used colloquially, and some are almost confrontational when they are told they have to fill out the absentee ballot application form in order to vote on the machines at the polling place in advance of the election since they don't want to vote absentee, they want to vote early. They get cranky when they are told by the BOE that anything before the election is absentee.
I used the absentee/early voting as a concession to the colloquial use of the phrase "early voting" since that is how people commonly refer to casting a ballot before election day, even though legally it is all absentee voting - and to familiarize people with the "absentee" language that will be on the form when they go to vote in advance of the election.