For months we have been encouraged to be safe and vote absentee. However, with the recent changes at the Post Office, people are concerned that their absentee ballots might not arrive at the Town Clerk’s office in time. What to do?
• You can track your absentee ballot on-line at: app.sos.nh.gov.
• If you are returning your absentee ballot by general mail, i.e. putting it in your mailbox in front of your home, or putting it in a mailbox outside the post office, the Secretary of State’s Office is recommending that you allow at least a week to return your absentee ballot, two weeks to play it safe, as your envelope will be sent to Manchester for sorting. (The Union Leader has just announced that several sorting machines in Manchester have been taken out of service.)
• If you haven’t already returned your absentee ballot, fill it out and return it as directly and quickly as possible:
– go to Town Hall and hand it directly to Bonnie Wesley – use the door on the Main Street side of the Town Hall building.
– go to the Andover Post Office (not the East Andover Post Office) and hand your absentee ballot (stamped, in the return envelope) directly to the mail clerk, who will put it directly into the Town Clerk’s PO Box.
– go to the Andover Post Office (not the East Andover Post Office) and put your
absentee ballot in the slot in the lobby labeled “Andover”.
• If you have not requested your absentee ballot yet, you can go directly to Town Hall to get it. Remember to bring an ID with you. You can fill out an application and be given a ballot on the spot, as they have already arrived at Town Hall. You can fill it out right then and there, insert it into its inner affidavit envelope, seal that envelope and sign it, insert that envelope with the ballot enclosed into the return envelope, and hand it directly to the Town Clerk.
• If you haven’t requested an absentee ballot yet, but would still like to vote absentee, there will be drive-through absentee voting outside Town Hall on the Main Street side of the Town Hall. This will take place for the Primary Election on Saturday, August 29, and Saturday, September 5, from 9 AM to 1 PM. Please remember to bring an ID with you.
• By law, the Town Clerk’s Office must be open from 3 to 5 PM the day before the election. For the Primary that means the office will be open on Labor Day. You can go to Town Hall on Labor Day, September 7, fill out the paperwork for an absentee ballot and vote absentee the day before the election. Please remember to bring an ID with you.
• If you are still nervous about your ballot arriving on time or the Secretary of State’s tracker indicates that it has not arrived, you may go to the Town Clerk’s office the day before the election and request an absentee ballot to replace the one that hasn’t arrived at Town Hall yet.
Additionally, any voter, who has requested an absentee ballot is allowed to show up at the polls on Election Day and vote in person. You are allowed to do this up until the moment your absentee ballot is opened and cast (at which point your name is crossed off the checklist.) The Town Moderator is allowed to start processing the absentee ballots at 9 AM on Election Day, so if you choose to do this, you should show up before 9 AM.