Secretary of State Jesse White’s office has issued a letter confusing voters about mail in ballot applications. Morgan County Clerk Jill Waggoner says she was unaware of the letter being sent and that an upset local voter alerted her office to the correspondence: “I am surprised, too. The first I knew about this letter was about 1:30 yesterday afternoon when I had a voter call me who said they did not want to vote by mail. Of course, you do not have to. It is still your right to either early vote or go to your precinct on Election Day. This letter, I think, is just giving you the opportunity again to request a mail-in ballot if you choose to, but I did not know about the letter. My office has absolutely nothing to do with the letter even though it has my information on it. If you don’t want to vote by mail, just disregard it.”
Waggoner says live ballots start going out in the mail next Thursday the 24th, but people still have time to apply for mail-in ballots. Illinois State Board of Elections spokesperson Matt Dietrich says that people should submit their mail-in ballot applications by October 15th in order to ensure that County Clerk’s offices have enough time to tabulate ballots on Election Day to provide results. Waggoner says another mail-in ballot application reminder letter will be sent out in the month of October. Mail-in ballots will only be tabulated if they are postmarked November 3rd. Final results of elections will be finalized on November 17th. Dietrich recommends that people submit their live ballots as soon as they comfortable sending it in.
Waggoner says that if people have questions about their mail-in ballot application or early voting to call her office at 217-243-8581.