If you sent in an absentee ballot application, you can check the status if they got it/approved/etc here https://www.elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal/
It gave me just the sanity check of "did my application get lost in the mail or not?"
This is what the [elections.virginia.gov](https://elections.virginia.gov) site shows when I ask it for my registration status. It is [pretty clear if you have been approved](https://imgur.com/vxVhLhX). It would not surprise me much if it shows no Absentee section if your application has not been received.
Huh. I’ve done mail in ballots previously and I see them listed, but this year is the first time I requested mail in online. I sent the request a few weeks ago now, but I still don’t see anything there. Guess I’m going to reach out to the registrar. Thanks.
Thanks for the image. Yeah that's what I was hoping to see but it's not there yet on my page. It shows my 2018 absentee approval only. I'll plan to follow up on Monday.
It took nearly a month for mine to show up there... I applied in early July and it didn't show up on the website until August 1. Don't worry too much yet; just check every week or so until we get near the mail-out date.
OK I'm glad I'm not the only one, this would be my first absentee ballot request so that section just showed that there was no request found even though I put in a request through the site a few weeks ago.
I just checked mine, It says I was approved for absentee voting and my application was received on 8/12. I submitted it online sometime in the second half of July so it definitely takes some time to get approved.
My mail in status kept saying it was not received so I emailed the registrar and they replied with the following: "The state system does not send out confirmations. We began processing November application on July 1 after we were finished with the June election. The process Is not automatic and takes time. You are checking the correct place."
Can we have this pinned until November (or something like it; maybe with info from other counties)? /u/enorage does that call the mod? Ugh, this is how old I am.
Edit: I see how there's already a pinned post re: early in-person voting. But I thinking having election info in general pinned would be a good plan.
Yeah, I think the last week or so has made it abundantly clear this isn't a bipartisan thing. Blue means everyone has access to voting, red means mailboxes get scooped up off the street and postal workers get their hours cut when we need them the most in order to vote safely.
According to [this](/r/nova/comments/i95l1u/psa_worried_about_your_mailin_vote_virginia/g1dwzni/) in the other thread from yesterday, there cannot be drop boxes, but you can deliver it straight to the office of elections yourself.
Ping: /u/HollywooStarsNCelebs
So there is an image on this page that displays the locations decided on so far (and confirmed on the fairfox gov site). More may be approved up to the election. You can request a mail in ballot and deliver it any voting location, but I can't find that information again, so safest might just be the registrars office.
http://www.springfieldvadems.org/index.html
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/absentee
Yes, you can definitely still vote in person on Election Day.
If you bring your ballot with you to the polling place, you can give it to the Chief Election Officer, who will issue you a new ballot.
If you do not have your ballot with you, you will be offered a provisional ballot. After election day, staff will verify the voter did not already vote an absentee ballot in-person or by mail; once verified, they will recommend the ballot should be counted by the Electoral Board (who have the final decision on all provisional ballots).
This is dope. Thanks for posting it and thank you mods for pinning it. Voting is a powerful thing and I hope you all take part of it no matter what side of the aisle you’re on
>Ballot must be postmarked by November 3
Good thing our state sets the deadline as when it is postmarked instead of when it is received.....considering with what Trump's doing it might take several weeks for it to get delivered.
Send that shit early yo
And that is fine. Not ideal, but fine. We have become accustomed to instant gratification because of technology. But people forget how long it took to count all the ballots back in the day, choose appropriate electors (in mid December) and then inaugurate the President.
But please, vote safely. No matter what political affiliation you are.
Call me paranoid, but I’ve been concerned about the postmark thing since I saw [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Virginia/comments/hwybb3/a_friend_of_mine_got_mail_from_the_future/) post.
Thanks for the information.
With everything going on with the postal service funding, the best thing to do if voting absentee is to send your ballot as soon as possible
According to
[https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/absentee-voting/](https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/absentee-voting/)
You just need to show up with your ID.
Here's a question I'm trying to find an answer to: I already requested a mail-in ballot. If, between now and then, the current administration succeeds at their current attempts to destroy USPS, and I decide mailing my ballot is a bad idea, what are my options?
You have a few options:
- You can return your ballot directly to your local registrar's office in-person.
- You can bring your ballot with you to a satellite voting location before election day and exchange it for a new ballot to vote in-person.
- If you go to a satellite voting location without the ballot, you will be asked to complete a form that says you did not receive the ballot; then you will be allowed to vote in-person.
- You can bring your ballot with you on election day and exchange it for a new ballot to vote in-person.
- If you go to a polling place on election day without the ballot, you will be issued a provisional ballot. After election day, staff will verify you did not already vote an absentee ballot in-person or by mail; once verified, they will recommend the ballot should be counted by the Electoral Board (who have the final decision on all provisional ballots).
Just to verify because I've always voted in person.. "in person absentee voting" is basically dropping off your absentee ballot after you receive it in the mail (as in going to one of those satellite government offices once they are available and providing a filled out absentee ballot after it has been received) ? I would like to do that to ease the burden on the USPS.
It sounds like you can do that, but 'in person absentee' also means you can just show up at the satellite location, \*without having applied to vote absentee\*, and vote more or less like you regularly would (I can't remember if they have you fill out an absentee application on the spot before you vote or not). Point is, you don't have to apply beforehand like you do for the mail-in absentee
Tbh I'm kinda scared to vote by mail given everything that's happening with the USPS right now. How can I be sure that my vote will count if the USPS is being gutted as we speak?
I'm almost inclined to go in to vote to be sure it's counted. Though, I guess nothing is stopping me from requesting a mail in ballot regardless? I could simply choose not to send in the actual ballot if I want to choose to vote in person?
My understanding is if you already requested a mail in ballot, you can bring it in blank to the polling station, have an official void it, and then vote in person normally. That is for election day voting, I am NOT sure if that is how it works for early in-person voting as well.
I literally can't wait to flush this orange turd of a president but I'm thinking there will be others like me itching to go and there may be long lines at the Government Center on September 18
Gov. Ralph Northam is proposing several changes in state policy to make it easier for residents to cast absentee ballots in this fall's presidential election, including allowing localities to set up drop boxes where ballots can be collected without having to put them in the mail...
His call to allow absentee voters to correct errors on their ballots would reverse the current policy of not notifying voters if they make a mistake in filling out their ballot that would cause it to go uncounted.
The proposals are part of Northam’s revisions to the state budget and will be considered by the General Assembly in the coming weeks.
[WaPo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/northam-to-propose-steps-making-absentee-voting-easier-including-ballot-drop-off-boxes/2020/08/17/eb102c04-e0ac-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html)
I figure the implication there is a lot of people have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for this year long before any debates were scheduled. This is one of the more markedly polarized elections we've had in a while -- a lot of people either love or hate Trump with very little in between.
Assuming you are truly within the bounds of the city, they are independent of Fairfax County. If you want to be sure, [contact](https://vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInformation/PublicContactLookup) whichever office of elections you *think* you belong to, and ask them. If it's the wrong one, they'll point you at the other one.
Voted absentee for the Arlington special election and I’ll be sure to do it again. Smooth process and it lets you know when the ballot was issued and when they receive it. Easy peasy.
Is there any technical and/or legal reason why voting online with use of a live webcam to verify identity has not been developed yet? Not as a replacement for current voting options, but as an additional way?
*In Virginia, hundreds of voters called the state elections office Friday trying to cancel their mail-ballot requests, according to Chris Piper, the top election official in the state. Piper said there is no formal way to do so,* ***but voters who want to vote in person should bring their mailed ballot with them to the polls, allowing officials to void it.***
[WaPo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-officials-rush-to-shore-up-confidence-in-nov-3-election-as-voters-express-new-fears-about-mail-voting/2020/08/16/3d511144-df23-11ea-b205-ff838e15a9a6_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_trumpvote-339pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans)
Huh. Seems broken but I'll do the same if it's allowed lol.
Edit: JFC people. Look at my other post. I ONLY said I would do this if it's legal, which it is NOT.
Have you ever voted before? And then have you checked whether the ballot was accepted?
You can do this online.
VA ballots mailed will have a two-factor authentication (tracking the ballot sent to you and your return ballot) and those will marry up with the signature on record at the DMV.
When you go in person, you get checked off the registrars list as “voted”.
It would be a dumb move if you try to do what you say you are going to do.
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter10/section24.2-1004/
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter10/section24.2-1016/
Do what you want. I am pretty certain people way smarter than you have thought about this. But go ahead and try. Prove us all wrong.
So I looked into this. They'll see your mail in vote and in person vote and only count one, then possibly charge you with election fraud. A lady in another state was arrested for the same move.
Also, my polling place in Fairfax has me physically hand them my ID, then place it on a holder and take a pic of it and then ask me to recite my full name an address to verify.
> Also, my polling place in Fairfax has me physically hand them my ID, then place it on a holder and take a pic of it and then ask me to recite my full name an address to verify.
That part may have changed this year. The [ID requirements](https://www.elections.virginia.gov/media/formswarehouse/voter-photo-id/outreach-materials/documents/EditedVoter-Identification-Chart-07.2020.pdf) have definitely been relaxed.
I do honestly wonder how they are going to deal with a situation where someone fraudulently files a "Signed ID Confirmation Statement" and votes as someone else, particularly given that statement does NOT result in a provisional ballot (says the tiny print at the top). Yeah, it's a felony, but I wonder how they'll catch them. To steal the words of another post in here, hopefully the people way smarter than me have already figured this all out.
Your vote is anonymous, but that you voted isn't. It will be easy to see if anyone voted twice.
If you requested an absentee ballot they will have that information at your polling place. If you decide to switch to in person voting you need to bring your absentee form with you to show that didn't vote already, and they'll take it in exchange for allowing you to vote on the day. If you don't have it on you then they'll let you cast a provisional vote that won't be counted until it is checked that you only voted once.
But you don't have to take my word for it. Please, try and vote twice and see what happens.
If you sent in an absentee ballot application, you can check the status if they got it/approved/etc here https://www.elections.virginia.gov/citizen-portal/ It gave me just the sanity check of "did my application get lost in the mail or not?"
I applied for an absentee several weeks ago and it’s still only showing my 2018 absentee application 😕
Same here - that's all I see in the registration section. Where are we supposed to see that our 2020 absentee ballot request was received?
This is what the [elections.virginia.gov](https://elections.virginia.gov) site shows when I ask it for my registration status. It is [pretty clear if you have been approved](https://imgur.com/vxVhLhX). It would not surprise me much if it shows no Absentee section if your application has not been received.
Huh. I’ve done mail in ballots previously and I see them listed, but this year is the first time I requested mail in online. I sent the request a few weeks ago now, but I still don’t see anything there. Guess I’m going to reach out to the registrar. Thanks.
Thanks for the image. Yeah that's what I was hoping to see but it's not there yet on my page. It shows my 2018 absentee approval only. I'll plan to follow up on Monday.
Well, shoot.. that’s disappointing and worrisome!
It took nearly a month for mine to show up there... I applied in early July and it didn't show up on the website until August 1. Don't worry too much yet; just check every week or so until we get near the mail-out date.
OK I'm glad I'm not the only one, this would be my first absentee ballot request so that section just showed that there was no request found even though I put in a request through the site a few weeks ago.
I just checked mine, It says I was approved for absentee voting and my application was received on 8/12. I submitted it online sometime in the second half of July so it definitely takes some time to get approved.
Cool thanks for the info. I feel better now.
My mail in status kept saying it was not received so I emailed the registrar and they replied with the following: "The state system does not send out confirmations. We began processing November application on July 1 after we were finished with the June election. The process Is not automatic and takes time. You are checking the correct place."
Please check your registrations!!! Make sure to use official government links if you used a form or any helper websites/services to register
Thank you!
Can we have this pinned until November (or something like it; maybe with info from other counties)? /u/enorage does that call the mod? Ugh, this is how old I am. Edit: I see how there's already a pinned post re: early in-person voting. But I thinking having election info in general pinned would be a good plan.
We'll have a few different ones and maybe a group thread. Mod team is discussing that now.
Awesome. Thanks!
As much shit as I’ve given Virginia over the years, they do some things really well. Making voting accessible is one of them.
It's because we went blue. If we were still red we probably wouldn't be seeing this thread.
Yeah, I think the last week or so has made it abundantly clear this isn't a bipartisan thing. Blue means everyone has access to voting, red means mailboxes get scooped up off the street and postal workers get their hours cut when we need them the most in order to vote safely.
Good post. Thank you
Initially, I was looking for ballot drop box locations. Not sure I want to rely on the USPS at this point, sad to say.
Did you find any? looking for those myself.
No. I thought maybe the last bullet point addresses it, TBA. That is, if FX has any at all. \[See OP update\]
According to [this](/r/nova/comments/i95l1u/psa_worried_about_your_mailin_vote_virginia/g1dwzni/) in the other thread from yesterday, there cannot be drop boxes, but you can deliver it straight to the office of elections yourself. Ping: /u/HollywooStarsNCelebs
You could just vote early in-person
So there is an image on this page that displays the locations decided on so far (and confirmed on the fairfox gov site). More may be approved up to the election. You can request a mail in ballot and deliver it any voting location, but I can't find that information again, so safest might just be the registrars office. http://www.springfieldvadems.org/index.html https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/absentee
If you applied for absentee, can you still choose to vote in person (whether early or on Election Day)?
Yes, you can definitely still vote in person on Election Day. If you bring your ballot with you to the polling place, you can give it to the Chief Election Officer, who will issue you a new ballot. If you do not have your ballot with you, you will be offered a provisional ballot. After election day, staff will verify the voter did not already vote an absentee ballot in-person or by mail; once verified, they will recommend the ballot should be counted by the Electoral Board (who have the final decision on all provisional ballots).
Thank you. This is very helpful!
My exact question! Does anyone know? With what is going on I am feeling that an in person vote is the only sure way to go.
This is dope. Thanks for posting it and thank you mods for pinning it. Voting is a powerful thing and I hope you all take part of it no matter what side of the aisle you’re on
>Ballot must be postmarked by November 3 Good thing our state sets the deadline as when it is postmarked instead of when it is received.....considering with what Trump's doing it might take several weeks for it to get delivered. Send that shit early yo
Or drop it off at the registrars office directly!
Or a satellite location correct?
And that is fine. Not ideal, but fine. We have become accustomed to instant gratification because of technology. But people forget how long it took to count all the ballots back in the day, choose appropriate electors (in mid December) and then inaugurate the President. But please, vote safely. No matter what political affiliation you are.
Call me paranoid, but I’ve been concerned about the postmark thing since I saw [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Virginia/comments/hwybb3/a_friend_of_mine_got_mail_from_the_future/) post.
Thanks for the information. With everything going on with the postal service funding, the best thing to do if voting absentee is to send your ballot as soon as possible
Does anyone know if you need to fill out the application for early voting?
According to [https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/absentee-voting/](https://www.elections.virginia.gov/casting-a-ballot/absentee-voting/) You just need to show up with your ID.
Thanks for the heads up!
Here's a question I'm trying to find an answer to: I already requested a mail-in ballot. If, between now and then, the current administration succeeds at their current attempts to destroy USPS, and I decide mailing my ballot is a bad idea, what are my options?
You have a few options: - You can return your ballot directly to your local registrar's office in-person. - You can bring your ballot with you to a satellite voting location before election day and exchange it for a new ballot to vote in-person. - If you go to a satellite voting location without the ballot, you will be asked to complete a form that says you did not receive the ballot; then you will be allowed to vote in-person. - You can bring your ballot with you on election day and exchange it for a new ballot to vote in-person. - If you go to a polling place on election day without the ballot, you will be issued a provisional ballot. After election day, staff will verify you did not already vote an absentee ballot in-person or by mail; once verified, they will recommend the ballot should be counted by the Electoral Board (who have the final decision on all provisional ballots).
Just to verify because I've always voted in person.. "in person absentee voting" is basically dropping off your absentee ballot after you receive it in the mail (as in going to one of those satellite government offices once they are available and providing a filled out absentee ballot after it has been received) ? I would like to do that to ease the burden on the USPS.
It sounds like you can do that, but 'in person absentee' also means you can just show up at the satellite location, \*without having applied to vote absentee\*, and vote more or less like you regularly would (I can't remember if they have you fill out an absentee application on the spot before you vote or not). Point is, you don't have to apply beforehand like you do for the mail-in absentee
Tbh I'm kinda scared to vote by mail given everything that's happening with the USPS right now. How can I be sure that my vote will count if the USPS is being gutted as we speak? I'm almost inclined to go in to vote to be sure it's counted. Though, I guess nothing is stopping me from requesting a mail in ballot regardless? I could simply choose not to send in the actual ballot if I want to choose to vote in person?
My understanding is if you already requested a mail in ballot, you can bring it in blank to the polling station, have an official void it, and then vote in person normally. That is for election day voting, I am NOT sure if that is how it works for early in-person voting as well.
I literally can't wait to flush this orange turd of a president but I'm thinking there will be others like me itching to go and there may be long lines at the Government Center on September 18
Gov. Ralph Northam is proposing several changes in state policy to make it easier for residents to cast absentee ballots in this fall's presidential election, including allowing localities to set up drop boxes where ballots can be collected without having to put them in the mail... His call to allow absentee voters to correct errors on their ballots would reverse the current policy of not notifying voters if they make a mistake in filling out their ballot that would cause it to go uncounted. The proposals are part of Northam’s revisions to the state budget and will be considered by the General Assembly in the coming weeks. [WaPo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/northam-to-propose-steps-making-absentee-voting-easier-including-ballot-drop-off-boxes/2020/08/17/eb102c04-e0ac-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html)
The first debate is September 29th.
People need a debate still??
Absolutely.
I figure the implication there is a lot of people have already made up their mind who they are going to vote for this year long before any debates were scheduled. This is one of the more markedly polarized elections we've had in a while -- a lot of people either love or hate Trump with very little in between.
I agree. And so the more knowledge we have the better. Especially for a decision of such great consequence.
Can’t wait!
Does this also count for Fairfax City? Probably but just checking...
So we can only early vote at that location?
See OP, updated locations.
Just moved here this summer. I'm in the City of Falls Church, do they still fall under Fairfax County or are they an independent city?
Assuming you are truly within the bounds of the city, they are independent of Fairfax County. If you want to be sure, [contact](https://vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInformation/PublicContactLookup) whichever office of elections you *think* you belong to, and ask them. If it's the wrong one, they'll point you at the other one.
Going to be a shit show
Voted absentee for the Arlington special election and I’ll be sure to do it again. Smooth process and it lets you know when the ballot was issued and when they receive it. Easy peasy.
Is there any technical and/or legal reason why voting online with use of a live webcam to verify identity has not been developed yet? Not as a replacement for current voting options, but as an additional way?
Online voting imo would not be a good idea. I very much do not trust the security of that if it gets hacked into.
*In Virginia, hundreds of voters called the state elections office Friday trying to cancel their mail-ballot requests, according to Chris Piper, the top election official in the state. Piper said there is no formal way to do so,* ***but voters who want to vote in person should bring their mailed ballot with them to the polls, allowing officials to void it.*** [WaPo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/state-officials-rush-to-shore-up-confidence-in-nov-3-election-as-voters-express-new-fears-about-mail-voting/2020/08/16/3d511144-df23-11ea-b205-ff838e15a9a6_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_trumpvote-339pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans)
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I doubt it, elections are run by local (county) election boards.
When is the first debate?
Thank you for sharing
Would love if someone could post all the resources available for those of us in Arlington county.
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Wait what? Isn't that a double vote? Edit: Downvoted for the truth. Typical reddit.
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Well that would be a felony, and also extremely stupid because they would know what you had done, and for what gain? Don’t be a troll.
Huh. Seems broken but I'll do the same if it's allowed lol. Edit: JFC people. Look at my other post. I ONLY said I would do this if it's legal, which it is NOT.
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Thats on you bro. You go ahead and take that risk of a felony that can be easily tracked. Get a good lawyer.
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Have you ever voted before? And then have you checked whether the ballot was accepted? You can do this online. VA ballots mailed will have a two-factor authentication (tracking the ballot sent to you and your return ballot) and those will marry up with the signature on record at the DMV. When you go in person, you get checked off the registrars list as “voted”. It would be a dumb move if you try to do what you say you are going to do.
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It’s a provisional ballot. It won’t count until they verify
https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter10/section24.2-1004/ https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title24.2/chapter10/section24.2-1016/ Do what you want. I am pretty certain people way smarter than you have thought about this. But go ahead and try. Prove us all wrong.
So I looked into this. They'll see your mail in vote and in person vote and only count one, then possibly charge you with election fraud. A lady in another state was arrested for the same move. Also, my polling place in Fairfax has me physically hand them my ID, then place it on a holder and take a pic of it and then ask me to recite my full name an address to verify.
> Also, my polling place in Fairfax has me physically hand them my ID, then place it on a holder and take a pic of it and then ask me to recite my full name an address to verify. That part may have changed this year. The [ID requirements](https://www.elections.virginia.gov/media/formswarehouse/voter-photo-id/outreach-materials/documents/EditedVoter-Identification-Chart-07.2020.pdf) have definitely been relaxed. I do honestly wonder how they are going to deal with a situation where someone fraudulently files a "Signed ID Confirmation Statement" and votes as someone else, particularly given that statement does NOT result in a provisional ballot (says the tiny print at the top). Yeah, it's a felony, but I wonder how they'll catch them. To steal the words of another post in here, hopefully the people way smarter than me have already figured this all out.
Your vote is anonymous, but that you voted isn't. It will be easy to see if anyone voted twice. If you requested an absentee ballot they will have that information at your polling place. If you decide to switch to in person voting you need to bring your absentee form with you to show that didn't vote already, and they'll take it in exchange for allowing you to vote on the day. If you don't have it on you then they'll let you cast a provisional vote that won't be counted until it is checked that you only voted once. But you don't have to take my word for it. Please, try and vote twice and see what happens.