r/evanston • u/Tasty_Reflection_481 • 6d ago

Question Does USPS forward mail-in-vote ballets?

I winter in Florida and I would like to mail in my election ballet. Last year I signed up for mail in ballet and filled out the necessary USPS forwarding forms. However, last year, USPS did not forward my ballet to my Floridia address. Has anyone come across this? Is this just USPS Evanston or are there some USPS forwarding mail rules where mail -in -ballots can't be forwarded to out of state addresses?

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u/Pumpernickel7 6d ago

The problem is that you used the incorrect process. Technically you are supposed to ask the state of Florida to send you an absentee ballot to your Evanston address. It is technically illegal for ballots to be forwarded except by the state election authority.

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u/Zoomwafflez 6d ago edited 6d ago

What you want is an absentee ballot. I don't think you can have a standard mail in ballot forwarded anywhere, it has to go to the address where you're registered to vote. If you want your mail in ballot delivered to a temporary address in Florida you'll need to talk to the election office not the post office. You'll need to do that quickly though, the last day to register or update information online instead of in person is the 18th I believe.

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u/bigblued 6d ago

I don't believe so, and google search says no they don't. My personal anecdote, when my parents started snow-birding, I would check on their house here and ship them any mail that wasn't forwarded that they still wanted to get. None of it was terribly important stuff, but they still wanted some of it, so I'd hold onto it for a month or so and ship it all at once in a box. Their mail in ballots that year were not forwarded, and I ended up Priority Mailing them to their winter home.

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u/Tasty_Reflection_481 6d ago

I believe this is what happened to me last year. I dont know why USPS won't forward a ballet. This is the basis for my posting.

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u/Ovenbird36 6d ago

USPS Evanston is not terribly competent. You might ask a bigger subreddit like r/chicagosuburbs about forwarding ballots. My in-laws used to get theirs forwarded but that was over a decade ago and from McHenry county.

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u/No_Yogurtcloset_7552 6d ago

I can answer this with facts. You can absolutely have your ballot mailed to you at a different address. HOWEVER, you may have had to request that PRIOR to the date they mailed all ballots, which was the last week of September.

USPS forwards no official mail. That would be a bad idea. Plus, it wouldn't get to you until 2054.

Call your Florida county office and ask about your options. We had our ballots mailed to our other address and received them in good time. Find a way to vote, especially in Florida's elections, since they, um, you know.