Postmarks and Mail-in Absentee Ballots--What Is The Policy, Exactly?

This afternoon I sent the following email to the NC State Board of Elections Voter Outreach Team. They work for me.

And for you.

Maybe you would like to send them an email, too: VoterOutreach.sboe@ncsbe.gov

"Good afternoon:

I am writing to ask for a clarification of your policy regarding postmarks and absentee ballots.  As you know, mail is no longer automatically stamped with a "real" postmark, i.e., one that includes a date. I'm concerned that we--and I do mean we, since it's my government, too--might be rejecting absentee ballots that are mailed on time but lack the stamp necessary to prove it.

The postmark issue is enough of a concern that your campaign finance division makes a special effort to convey this information to committee treasurers, in both a training manual and on the "Campaign Finance" section of the ncsbe.gov web site. However, your web site and the "Absentee Voting" section of the ncsbe.gov web site do not mention this issue at all.

What is your policy concerning these ballots? In order to count, do absentee ballots returned via US Mail require a real postmark with a stamped date?

I've written about this on our blog:

http://makeitcountnc.blogspot.com/2015/11/always-request-real-postmark-for-your.html

Thank you for reading."

--
Kevin Farmer

Make It Count