2020 Absentee Voting

You need to provide a US residence on the FVAP ballot application form. You don’t need to own or rent property there; you could provide the last address you lived in even if the address no longer exists. In N.C. they will not send out ballots more than 60 days in advance in even numbered years.

I wrote back to the absentee ballot office in NC that the postal system here is slow and I requested it be sent earlier but of course there are no exceptions for countries with slow postal services. When you send the federal FAVP.gov forms to apply for ballots, they go to your State. We sent our FVSP form last June 1 but heard nothing back. So I sent them an email inquiring the status of our ballots, plainly copying the office of our N.C. senator (the one up for re-election this year) on cc:. Not sure if that made any difference but they did respond almost immediately.

They will send our ballots no earlier than September 4; so,
when do the ballots arrive here when during this covid crisis? Assume October 4 (optimistic). Then we immediately mark our ballots and send back to the State absentee voter office. I don’t think Phil post will make it on time. Maybe, but rather risky.

US Embassy: All they are going to do is forward your ballot back to your state. They say to drop it off at the embassy in Manila (sure) or mail it to them; of course courier mail is required for it to get to the Embassy reliably from the provinces.

Embassy says to make sure envelope is ‘prepaid or with sufficient postage’. That makes it sound like they are simply forwarding your vote using Phil Post; how do we know what sufficient postage is supposed to be? States have laws that say your ballot cannot be counted if it arrives after a specified date, Nov 3 in our case.

Ironically it sounds like it takes longer and costs more total postage if you send via US embassy (presumably through Phil Post). I don’t see how they can guarantee it will get back on time unless you live in some state that happens to send out ballots very early. I don’t see that going through the Embassy guarantees anything such as your vote arriving on time and being counted.

We will send our votes directly back to the N.C. absentee voting office that handles our address. We will use LBC who uses DHL. If our ballots arrive real late, we will use DHL directly.

I am not even sure if Phil Post accepts or will accept any mail to the US in the next few months due to covid.

You can vote absentee for State and Federal candidates in N.C.; the federal form tells you that you can vote not just for President and VP but also Senators and Representatives up for re-election this year.

This year it will be very important to vote; my concern is that one party might take the House, the Senate and the Presidency thus year. Shortly after the session begins they have already said they will remove the filibuster meaning that one party could pass whichever laws they wish with a simple majority.

No matter which party you are, I think that must be prevented.


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Georgia allows electronic voting if you have a local address..

Electronic Ballot Ready


Inbox
x




electronicballot_noreply@sos.ga.gov
Tue, Jul 14, 10:35 AM


to me






We have received your request for an absentee ballot for the upcoming runoff election. Your ballot is now available and may be obtained from the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page located at: http://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/.

In order to access your ballot, you will be asked for your User ID. Your User ID is the email address you provided on the absentee ballot request or federal post card application.

DO NOT SEND IN A SAMPLE BALLOT FROM THE "MY VOTER PAGE" WEBSITE. It will not be counted. Use only the ballot that has a "UOCAVA" watermark to cast your votes.

To find forms and instructions, election dates, and information updates, please visit the Georgia Secretary of State's website for military and overseas voters at: http://sos.ga.gov/index.php/elections/military_and_overseas_voting2.

If you need any additional information or assistance, please contact your county elections office at:

JESSE A. HARRIS
UOCAVA CONTACT, GWINNETT COUNTY
455 GRAYSON HWY 200
LAWRENCEVILLE, GA 30046
6782267210(phone)
6782267208(fax)
UNIFORMEDANDOVERSEASCITIZENSABSENTEEVOTINGACT@GWINNETTCOUNTY.COM


Thank you for your interest in Georgia's elections.

 

Cool.


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Thanks for the info. Yeah, some if us have no idea about the FPO process up to now; hadn’t heard of it before and I learned something new today lol. So we would just LBC to the Embassy and add the postage from California to N.C. on the ballot return envelope. Maybe that would be the way to go. Do you know how we can pay the embassy for the postage inside US? I would pre-stamp the envelope except no US stamps available here.

No e-ballots in N.C.. Don’t know what those high State taxes are paying for.


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Actually, that might be a good solution to pay postage for ballots every 4 years (our only possible use) except for the fact that

‘The monthly fee is just $17.99 plus applicable taxes, if any, including the first month. Your service will continue uninterrupted as long as you do not cancel.’


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