New York State Voters. *UPDATE*
Under normal circumstances, New York State is an "excuse required" state in order to be able to vote via absentee ballot.
1) For the primaries held this past June, NYS specifically allowed voters to use an absentee ballot due to the COVID crisis. The methodology to be used was as follows: a) Fill out a request for absentee ballot form, b) check "temporary illness" as the reason you were requesting the ballot, c) Mail the complete form back to your County Board of Elections, d) receive your absentee ballot in the mail, complete it, and either mail it or deliver it to your County Board of Elections.
2) A short time ago on DU, I posed the question of whether this system would be allowable for the general election in November. I could not find anything online about this...all I could find was that this method was addressed for the primaries held this past June. Another kind DUer who works for the NYS Assembly informed me that legislation has been passed that will allow this method in the the general election also for individuals who are at risk for COVID. This DUer informed me that it was expected that that Gov. Cuomo would approve and sign this legislation, but it had not been signed at the time of my DU post.
3) Considering the Trump fuckery that is escalating daily concerning the USPS and other means of voter suppression, I decided to phone the NYS Board of Elections this morning. The woman who I spoke to did indeed verify that the legislation for the November General Election has indeed been passed, but it has not yet been signed by Gov. Cuomo. She also stated that "He is fully expected to approve and sign it, and he has stated that he will sign it". She told me to do the following: She asked for my name and address, and said she would mail me a request for an absentee ballot today. She said to fill out the request now (use "temporary illness"
, and either mail or deliver the completed request to my County board of elections. The actual ballot will then either be mailed to me, or picked up at the County Board (my choice as indicated on the request form).
Complete your ballot. It can then either be mailed back to the County Board of Elections, or hand delivered there. This decision, in my opinion, would depend on your COVID risk, as well the the general state of the USPS by the time you mail your ballot in.
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