Q: We always spend the work week in the City, except during vacations. Election Day is also the school week for our kids. Can we vote by absentee ballot in the country?

A: Yes. If you’re registered to vote in the country but regularly spend the week in the City because that’s where you or your spouse works, or because that’s where your kids are in school, you’re entitled to apply for and receive an absentee ballot.

Q: I thought I needed to describe “special circumstances” on the form in order to qualify for an absentee ballot.

A: That requirement only applies to people who don’t ordinarily have to be outside the county where they are registered to vote on election day.

Just the fact that work or family commitments ordinarily require you to be in the City during the week is enough to entitle you to an absentee ballot.

Q: Who decides if my absence is “unavoidable”?

A: You decide. The courts have stated that election officials shouldn’t be in the business of telling people how much money they have to risk losing, how many classes they or their kids have to cut, or how much trouble they have to get into at work in order to qualify for an absentee ballot.

Your good faith certification on the application form that you expect to be unavoidably absent from your country home on Election Day is entitled to respect. Here, as elsewhere in election law, you, the voter, are entitled to the benefit of the doubt.

Q: What if election officials give me a hard time about voting absentee?

Refer them to this website, and particularly to the relevant section of our Sources & References section, or contact us.