Voters interested in voting by mail in the upcoming Illinois primary elections can now submit their applications to do so, the Board of Elections announced this week.
According to the ISBE website, vote-by-mail applications officially opened on Wednesday, three months from the primary elections on June 28.
According to officials, all requests to vote-by-mail in the primary election must be received by election officials by June 23. Such requests can either be made through the mail, or in-person, according to ISBE officials.
The applications must be sent to county clerk offices in the jurisdiction where voters are registered, not to the state board of elections, according to officials.
Applications to vote-by-mail can be downloaded at this link.
Ballots for that election have not yet been finalized, but are expected to be completed during the month of April. Voters are expected to receive ballots shortly thereafter, and may return their ballots no more than 40 days prior to the election, according to officials.
Voters who receive a mail-in ballot will then either have to return that ballot via mail with their vote, or they can choose to vote in-person instead, but would have to bring their ballot to the polling place on Election Day.
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Voters can also sign an affidavit stating that they didn’t receive their ballot in the mail, or that they completed and returned the ballot, but that election authorities did not receive it.
If voters admit that they received a ballot, but did not return it to election authorities, then they would still legally be allowed to vote provisionally on Election Day.
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