Absentee Voting 

Absentee Voting

By Mail

Emergency Absentee Ballot

Where:

• The County Clerk is responsible for absentee voting.
• Currently, the only available means of Absentee Voting is by mail.

• You can track the status of your ballot by contacting this office at 866-767-8683 or elections@wvsos.com or by contacting your county clerk’s office.  You can also track the status of your absentee ballot here.

Where:

• A ballot can be brought to you at the hospital or nursing facility if you have been admitted because of an emergency during the last week before the election.
• This service is available at all hospitals within your home county.
• Your county may also adopt a policy to extend this service to other hospitals in adjacent counties or within 30 miles from the county seat. Check with the County Clerk to determine what hospitals are served.

 Deadlines:

• Your application to vote by mail must be received no later than the 6th day before the election.
• You may apply as early as eighty-four days before the election (or January 2 for military or overseas voters), but the ballots are not ready for mailing to you until 46 days before the election.
• Unless you are voting absentee by mail because of illness or disability, the ballot must be mailed to an out-of-county address.

Deadlines:  

• The voter's emergency admission must have occurred no earlier than the 7th day before the election.
• The ballot must be requested no later than noon of election day.

How:

• Request an application by telephone, fax or e-mail, or download the application here using the Adobe Reader.
• To downloan Adobe Reader or see tips for using it, go to Adobe Reader Help.

How:

• A family member may request the emergency absentee voting service by telephone.
• The County Clerk will schedule a team of emergency absentee voting commissioners to go to the voter at the hospital.
• The team takes the application and the ballot and returns the voted ballot to the County Clerk.

If your requested Absentee ballot does not arrive by mail, or if the ballot is lost,
 damaged, or destroyed, please contact your county clerk for information on how to
  receive another.

Any registered voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, advanced age or inability to read and write may be given assistance by a person of the voter's choice: Provided that the assistance may not be given by the voter's present or former employer, or agent of that employer, by the officer or agent of a labor union of which the voter is a past or present member, or by a candidate on the ballot.

 Absentee voting eligibility requirements

• Will you be working or traveling on Election Day?

• Will you be working or traveling all 13 days prior to Election Day?

• Do your hours of employment make voting impossible?

• Do you live another place during part of the year?

• Have you been given a job assignment which requires you to live outside of your county or West Virginia?

• Do you have health problems or a physical disability?

• Is you polling place inaccessible to you?

• Have you been hospitalized because of an emergency and will be in the hospital or care facility 7 days leading up to and including Election Day?

• Are you a Military or Overseas voter?

• Do you currently live outside the U.S. now, but when you lived in the U.S. did you live in West Virginia?

• Do you attend school away from home?

• Is voting on Election Day inconvenient?

• Are you under incarceration or detention in Jail or in Home? 

Will you be working or traveling on Election Day?  

• Will you be out of the county on Election Day, but home sometime during the time leading up to the election?
• If your travel is brief and you will be in your home county during the period of Early Voting, which begins 13 days before the election and runs through 3 days before the election, you can vote in person at the clerk's office.  You are not eligible to vote by mail.  

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Will you be working or traveling all 13 days leading up to the election?  

• If your travel is longer and you will be out of your county during the entire 13 days leading up to the election and election day, you may vote by mail.  The ballot has to be mailed to you at an out-of-county address.

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Do your hours of employment make voting impossible?  

• If your employment which, because of hours worked and distance from the county seat makes voting in person impossible, you may request an absentee ballot by mail.

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Do you live in another place during part of the year? 

• If you maintain your voting residence in West Virginia and live here the majority of the time but live elsewhere for part of the year, you may vote absentee by mail.

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Have you been given a job assignment which requires you to live outside of your county or West Virginia?  

• If you have a job assignment which requires you to live outside the county for an extended period of time (up to four years) and your employer can document that the assignment is temporary, you may maintain your voting residence in West Virginia and vote absentee by mail.  This provision also covers out-of-county service as an elected or appointed federal or state officer.  Please do not attempt to use this provision if you have moved from your previous residence and taken a normal job in another county or state.  In that case, you need to move your voter registration to your new residence.

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Do you have health problems or a physical disability? 

• If health problems or disabilities keep you confined to your home or other care facility so that you can't vote in person, you may apply for a ballot by mail.  Be sure to apply early enough so that your application reaches the clerk at least six days before the election.
• If you can no longer get out and are permanently unable to go to the polls, you may apply to be placed on the Permanent Absentee Voting List to vote by mail.
• A doctor's statement must be filed with your application, but once approved, the clerk will automatically send you an absentee ballot before each election.

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Is your polling place inaccessible to you? 

• Counties try hard to provide fully accessible voting places, but because of the lack of suitable buildings in many rural areas, that is not always possible.  If your polling place is inaccessible, you may vote an during Early Voting at the clerk's office. You may also apply to have your voter registration transferred to an accessible precinct in your district that is convenient for you.

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Have you been hospitalized because of an emergency and will be in the hospital or care facility 7 days leading up to and including Election Day? 

• Emergency absentee voting is available when a person is suddenly hospitalized or unexpectedly admitted to a nursing home within the county, or in some cases, in an adjacent county.  The provisions only apply when it is too late to get a ballot by mail.

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Are you a Military or Overseas voter? 

• Click here to access specific information about Military and Overseas Voting.

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Do you currently live outside the U.S. now, but when you lived in the U.S. did you live in West Virginia?   

• West Virginia residents who move outside the country continue to be eligible to vote at their last residence in the United States and may vote an absentee ballot by mail.
• You may apply anytime after January 1 of an election year up to the deadline, and may apply for all ballots in an election year on just one application.
• If you are in a very remote area where a ballot mailed to you might not reach you in time to vote, you may vote a write-in ballot.  However, this ballot is only acceptable if you have applied for a by-mail ballot and not received it.  

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Do you attend school far away from home? 

• Are you a college student who will be at school out of your home county on election day?
• If you are a college student living at school, you have two choices: 1) You may become a resident for voting purposes where you live at college, register and vote there, or 2) you may maintain your residence at home and vote using an absentee ballot by mail.
• If you are a college student living at home but commuting to college in another county, you should vote in person at the polls.  If your schedule requires you to be away the entire time the polls are open (6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.), you may vote absentee in person at the clerk's office.

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Is voting on election day inconvenient?

• Is getting to the polls on election day inconvenient because of work, transportation or other reasons? 
• A new provision of law allows anyone to vote early in person at the clerk's office during regular business hours beginning 13 days before the election up to three days before the election.
• During the 2009 Regular Session, the Legislature passed a bill allowing for Satellite Early Voting locations in addition to the primary location.  Please check with your County Clerk's office to see if Satellite Early Voting is available in your county.

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Are you under incarceration or detention in Jail or in Home?   

• If you are under incarceration or detention in a jail or in a home, you may request an absentee ballot by mail as long as you are not under conviction (including period of probation or parole) of any felony, of treason or of bribery in an election.
• In order to be eligible for the absentee ballot, the affidavit on the back of the Application of Voting an Absent Voter’s Ballot by Mail form must be completed by a sheriff, chief of police, or authorized deputy. 

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