Time is running out to register to vote in the presidential election

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Vernon County Clerk Tammi Beach wants voters to have all the information they need before this November's upcoming election. She pointed out that much information is available online and can be accessed through either Vernon County's Web site or the Missouri Secretary of State's Web site.

"You can log on to our Web site (www. vernoncountymo.org) and go to the clerk's page and find a sample ballot with all of the races and issues," Beach said. "You can also find information on registering and requesting an absentee ballot. The Secretary of State's Web site, http://sos.mo.gov/elections/, has a lot of information on it, too."

Basically, anyone who is a U.S. citizen and a Missouri resident 18 years of age by election day can register to vote in a Missouri election. The deadline is 5 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday before the election. Anyone who registers after that time, is registered to vote in any elections that follow.

"You can register here, of course; at any Missouri license office, at the Division of Family Services or by mail," Beach said. "The applications must be in by Oct. 8."

Voters who will be out of town, who are incapacitated or care for someone who is, who has a religious reason, employment as an election authority, as a member of an election authority, or by an election authority at a location other than the voter's polling place, and incarcerated, provided all qualifications for voting are retained, are eligible to vote by absentee ballot.

"Voters can vote absentee in person up to the day before the election," Beach said. "Mail-in ballots must be received by the day of the election."

Military personnel can register by a federal postcard application, which can be found on bases and at embassies around the world. Election authorities in the service members home county must keep the cards on file for two general elections.

"They don't have to have their ballots notarized either," Beach said.

Military personnel in danger zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq can e-mail or fax their ballots but must follow up by mailing in the absentee ballot, in addition.

"If they're in a hot danger zone they can e-mail or fax their stuff in if they're worried that the mail won't reach here in time; but then they must mail in the ballot, too," Beach said. "There are 49 places -- including Afghanistan and Iraq -- that applies to."

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