Vote Early, Vote Often in the New York State Primary The New York State primary elections are only eight days away, but with mail and absentee ballots being available now, you have plenty of time to get out and cast your vote. Voting in New York is not like voting in other states. Here are a few things you need to know: 1) You only have one time to vote, whether it's in person or by mail or absentee ballot. You can't vote more than once. Once you submit a ballot, it's official, and your vote is counted. 2) The registration deadline was back in September. You need to be registered to vote in order to vote. So if you haven't already registered to vote in New York, get yourself to the polls on Tuesday, September 14th. If you're registering in New York for the first time, you need to register 30 days before Election Day. You can register to vote online through our web site, on Election Day at any polling place in the state, or in the days before Election Day at your county Board of Elections. 3) The registration deadline for absentee ballots in New York is Wednesday, October 9th. If you miss the deadline, you can still vote, but you have to use a provisional ballot. These are ballots that are kept in a special envelope, which you fill out and sign. You will also be given a receipt. After voting, you'll need to bring your provisional ballot and the signed receipt to a county Board of Elections on the date of your county's primary election (December 4th or 11th) where you'll be given an official ballot with your vote counted. Your provisional ballot will still be kept with your signed receipt in a special envelope to be held for up to six months. 4) The State has been mailing out absentee ballots for over a month now. You need to give yourself plenty of time to receive and fill out and return your absentee ballot. Just follow the instructions on the ballot envelope. It's probably a good idea to start checking your mail around October 8th. You're allowed to start mailing in your ballot as early as October 1st. Just make sure it arrives at your county Board of Elections by the election on December 11th. 5) If you think you're going to be out of town on Election Day, go to your county Board of Elections and register to vote before Election Day. That way your absentee ballot will arrive in time for your Election Day. 6) If you already received a ballot in the mail, make sure it has the proper signatures and that you've filled in the "witness box" if it asks for it, on the back side of the envelope where it is asked for. 8) Early voting will begin on October 13th. Go to your county Board of Elections or check their web site for information on where, when, and how you can early vote. 9) Finally, there are not even any polling place changes until Friday, October 17th. They're too late for us to put a new list here, but you can go to your county Board of Elections' web site to see the latest information on polling place changes. You can also call the office of your local Board of Elections to find out if there have been any changes to your polling place. These New York primaries may be the last we get to see for a while. So it's time to go out and get your vote in. We'll be counting your votes starting right away! And you can count on us to report all the news from New York and all the other states in these contentious and important elections, right here on the Election Defense Alliance web site! Tuesday, October 1, 2002 How To Register To Vote, Online If you haven't registered to vote by the registration deadline date, but you're planning on voting this November 5th, you may be interested in registering online. In order to register, you need to get a Voter ID Card. You can get that online by going to the New York State Board of Elections site and following the instructions. You can then use the Voter Information Lookup program to find out if your name has been added to the voter registration. Please be advised that the Board of Elections may not be able to access Voter Information Lookup on the Internet on Friday, October 3rd. This was announced in a memo yesterday evening (4/9). We'll know more by Thursday morning, and we will post a new page with a link to the Voter Information Lookup on Friday morning (4/10) or Friday afternoon (4/10) so you can see if you can register to vote online. For now, you can just check this page on Tuesday, Tuesday, and Wednesday (10/1, 2) to see if your name has been added to the voter registration. If it has, register online (if you have a New York driver's license, it may take you a bit longer to register). Please be patient. Thanks for your help and cooperation.