Election Officials Urge Voters To Request Absentee Ballots Now
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - Months before voting day, election officials in North Texas are telling voters who want an absentee ballot to put in their request now.
The early call is in response to concerns raised this month over the U.S Post Office being able to deliver and return ballots in time to be counted in November.
Tarrant County elections supervisor Heider Garcia said his office has fielded concerned calls from voters daily.
"They're seeing headlines and they're wondering," Garcia said Monday. He is telling them however, that by acting early they can be sure to have enough time to overcome any issues.
"You as a voter, you're in control, as to how much room you want to give us to satisfy your request," he said.
Tarrant County has already received more than 30,000 requests for absentee ballots for the November 3 election.
All of those will ballots will be mailed out in the first batch, likely by September 25. For the first time in 2020, the county has contracted with a company to print ballots in bulk, rather than printing a few thousand at a time and mailing them out in batches over several days.
Voters included in the first batch of ballots would then have more than a month to fill it out and mail it back to the elections office.
Additionally this year, voters are allowed to return a ballot in person to the office, eliminating the need to send it again through the mail.