Friday is deadline for ballot by mail requests

By Matthew Waller

AUSTIN — A trip out of the area might not have to mean an uncast ballot.

Early voting in the primaries is underway, and the deadline to get in the application for a ballot by mail is Friday.

County offices must have received the applications by Friday rather than have them postmarked by Friday.

To vote by mail, a person must be 65 or older, be disabled, be out of the county on Election Day and during the early voting period, or be in jail but still eligible to vote.

People may apply for a ballot by mail using a form found at the Texas Secretary of State’s website at sos.state.tx.us, and the application must be submitted to the county’s local early voting clerk.

The mailed application must have a sender’s address — that is, an address outside the county if the person expects to be absent from the county.

The application can go by mail or fax.

For military and overseas voters, the state requires another form. They must fill out a Federal Postcard Application by Feb. 25.

Potential voters can obtain the form through the Federal Voting Assistance Program at fvap.gov, and the secretary of state’s office at votetexas.gov contains a PDF form.

“The main thing (Secretary of State Nandita Berry) has been pushing is being prepared for the March 4 primary,” said Secretary of State spokesman Jeff Hillery, referring to the need to have an appropriate form of identification for voting.

Given the state’s new voter identification laws, a photo ID is required for voting in person.

Those IDs could be a Texas driver’s license, a Texas Election Identification Certificate from the Texas Department of Public Safety, a Texas personal identification card from DPS, a Texas concealed handgun license from DPS, a U.S. military identification card with the person’s photograph, a U.S. citizenship certificate with the person’s photograph, or a U.S. passport.

“If name on the photo ID matches or is substantially similar to the name of the registered voter, the voter should be accepted to vote a regular ballot,” a news release from the Texas League of Women Voters states. The league promotes voting across the state. “Voters should be offered a provisional ballot if there are difficulties with the ID presented and will have six days to show acceptable ID to election officials.”

People can sign an affidavit at the polls if their name doesn’t quite match up with what is on the ID.

Reprinted with permission from the San Angelo Standard-Times.