Cast a Ballot
From the Couch:
Absentee Voting Gets Easier
Rule Changes Mean Millions
Of Americans Are Eligible;
Web Sites Pave the Way

By RON LIEBER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 2, 2004

The long lines. The confusion over whether the polling place has moved again. It is no wonder that many people dread voting on Election Day.

Increasingly, states are making it remarkably easy to vote without ever setting foot in a crowded school lunchroom or community center. A spate of regulatory changes around the country is relaxing the rules on absentee voting so much that tens of millions of Americans are now eligible, even if they plan to be in town on the day of the vote. In addition, a host of new online services have popped up to help people who want to vote early.
See a list of links to absentee-ballot application forms and instructions for each state and the District of Columbia.

At least 24 states allow anyone to mail in an absentee ballot, for any reason. These include most of the states west of the Mississippi River as well as North Carolina and the battleground state of Florida, whose absentee ballots became part of the litigation over the 2000 election. At least 16 states also open the doors to actual polling places for several days before Election Day, to anyone who wants to vote in person but dreads the Nov. 2 rush. This year, for the first time, Georgia, North Dakota and West Virginia will be trying this in a presidential election.

Twenty-six states plus the District of Columbia still require voters to provide a reason from a list of approved excused absences (such as being disabled, on vacation, or stationed overseas) in order to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail. Still, the reality is that local election officials have traditionally looked the other way as people fib about their travel plans.

And some states have widened the list of excuses for voting by mail. A new rule in Virginia, for instance, grants a mail-in ballot to anyone who says they'll be at work and commuting for more than 11 hours on Election Day.

The growing cadre of Web services that aid people who want to vote early include one called Absentee Impact, started by voter-registration software company Votenet Solutions Inc. in Washington, D.C. It helps users fill out and send in state-specific absentee ballot request forms. Web sites pay a fee to deploy the service, which launched in March, on their own pages.
Absentee Impact is available free to anyone at www.johnkerry.com. Scroll down the home page, click "Register to Vote," then click "Absentee Ballots." The site www.georgebush.com has a similar tool. Scroll down the home page and click "Vote Early."

Some labor unions, associations like AARP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, as well as big companies like Boeing and Kodak, offer their employees or members a similar Web service from helpingamericansvote.org. The nonpartisan organization, which is based in Washington, aims to increase participation in the 2004 election. It isn't available to the general public, however.

Even with such tools, voting before Election Day can be confusing for voters, thanks to terminology straight out of the Tower of Babel and a tangle of rules that are different in practically every state. All states allow voters to request an absentee ballot and mail it back in. Most of those also allow some form of absentee voting in person; you apply for and pick up a ballot at a local office, then turn it back in there.

During the past decade or so, many states have also begun allowing "early voting." They open actual polling places for several days or even a couple of weeks before Election Day. Early voting is sometimes known as "advance voting," "absentee-in-person" voting or all three at once in some states. In most states that have it, anyone can come in early and vote for any reason. (To find out if a state offers early voting, check the Web site in the accompanying chart or call local election officials.) According to the National Annenberg Election Survey, 15% of voters in the 2000 general election filled out ballots before Election Day. Most experts expect that figure to rise this year.

But not everyone has a legal right to vote in advance. Some states put limits on who can request absentee ballots by mail. Usually the list of accepted excuses includes people who are elderly, disabled or hospitalized. It also typically includes people who are living outside the country, in the military, or working at a polling place that isn't their own.

The one excused absence that raises the most questions and inspires the most creativity is travel. For years, an uncountable number of people have fibbed on their form, counting on the fact that the local officials are far too busy on the big day to call around to see whether people are really in Bermuda. (Some states make deception a little more tricky. Tennessee, for example, demands an out-of-the-area address to send a ballot to.)

People who lie and get caught could be guilty of a felony and go to jail for as long as 10 years in certain states, plus lose their right to vote in the future. Their ballot would probably get tossed as well. And if the results are close in certain states this fall, all sorts of challenges could emerge to any number of absentee ballots.

In interviews, no officials in the states that require an excuse could recall anyone ever being prosecuted for not telling the truth. "That would discourage people from voting absentee even when they had a legitimate reason, and we certainly don't want to do that," says Marci Andino, the executive director of the state election commission in South Carolina. But she adds: "We don't want to encourage people to lie."

Some states that require an excuse of some sort are loose enough with their language to allow for some wiggle room. New in Maryland this year is a provision that allows anyone who "may" be out of town to request an absentee ballot. Previously, the ballots went out only to people who said they "will" be away. Michigan sends ballots to people who are "expecting" to be out of town on Election Day.

In a few places, voting absentee requires some extra steps. For instance, in Missouri and Oklahoma citizens need to get a notary to stamp their ballots before putting them in the mail. Special rules may also apply to overseas civilians and members of the military, who can visit the Federal Voting Assistance Project Web site at fvap.gov or their own state's site for more details.

There are all sorts of mistakes voters make that cause absentee ballots to be disqualified. Requesting a ballot too late, or sending it in too late, is a common blunder. Request it at least a month before Election Day, and send it in at least 10 days ahead of time (more if you're out of the country). Another common blooper is not signing the ballot: Many states require at least two signatures in various places, including on the outside of the envelope.

Certain regions have vote-counting machines that are picky about color. "A red pen is a big no-no," says Kathy DeWolfe, Vermont's director of elections and campaign finance. "It's best to use black, and felt-tip is ideal."

Ann McGeehan, Texas's director of elections, notes another pitfall that is particularly important this year. She says that during the past, campaigns have handed out absentee-ballot request forms to voters that the campaigns created themselves. Though that's usually perfectly legal and fine, these homemade campaign forms occasionally do have errors on them. "We encourage people to request an official application," she says.

In many cases, political partisans are actively encouraging absentee voting. Recently, Florida's Republican party sent out a mailer questioning the reliability of new electronic machines being used in some parts of the state. "Make sure your vote counts," it said. "Order your absentee ballot today."