On the road working/vacationing? You can still vote!
Submitted by Wanderlust Andi
Digital Nomad? Road Warrior? RV'er? Vacationing? You can still vote absentee while on the road
Folks - traveling during the election day is NOT a good excuse to not vote! If you will be out of town during the election, you can vote absentee. To do this:
- Find your state's election website at https://www.usa.gov/election-office
- Search the site for "absentee voting" or "voting by mail" and follow the instructions
Note - some states require that you have a valid excuse for voting by mail. If so, most of these states will accept the excuse that you are out of town for business or vacation travel.
Just start the process NOW to ensure that there is time to have the ballot sent to you and for you to fill it out and have it mailed back by Tuesday, Nov 8, 2016.
It is easy to get an absentee ballot (in Minnesota at least)
I just filled out the form to have my Minnesota absentee ballot sent to me. It was easy. I just:
- went to https://mnvotes.sos.state.mn.us/ABRegistration/ABRegistrationStep1.aspx
- filled out the fields, including
- my name and birth date
- my drivers license AND/OR last 4 digits of my social security number
- my home address
- the address where I want the ballot sent
The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State will then mail the ballot to the specified address so I can vote and send the ballot back.
Don't have a good address because you are on the road?
This could be a bit tricky if you are not staying at any location for very long. In that case, you might want the ballot sent to a friend or business that could forward the ballot to you. Since I am on the road a lot, I had it sent to my Traveling Mailbox address (a business that emails you when they receive your mail, then will scan and/or forward the mail (and packages) to you). I can then request that they send the ballot to my hotel address.
Beware of Google's instructions
NOTE - when I Googled "absentee ballot Minnesota," I was presented with instructions that were somewhat misleading. Most notably, although there was a small link to an '"online form," the emphasis was more on:
- downloading and printing the absentee ballot request form
- filling out the form
- mailing, faxing or emailing the form back
When you are in a hotel, it is far easier to just fill out an online form than to figure out how to print and mail or email the form back.
Or - just vote early before going on your trip
34 states have no-excuse early voting which started in September. There are other states that allow early voting if you have an excuse - see https://ballotpedia.org/Early_voting. So - if you are in one of these states - avoid the whole absentee process by just voting before you go on your trip.
No matter how you vote - just make your plans NOW - before it is too late!
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