Voters Simply Need to Drop May Primary Ballot Request Postcards in the Mail

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Download the Press Release PDF

Date: May 12, 2020
Contact: Chad Houck, Chief Deputy Secretary of State
Phone: (208) 332-2862

Request forms are pre-addressed to county elections offices & include pre-paid postage.

Boise, Idaho – In early May, registered Idaho voters were sent a ballot request form for the upcoming May Primary Election, which will be conducted from home to protect voters, election workers and community members from the coronavirus. To request a ballot by mail, voters must open the mailer, tear off the postcard, complete it, sign it, and drop it back in their mailbox. All the ballot request postcards include pre-paid postage, so voters do not need to worry about stamps, and are pre-addressed so they are sent directly to voters’ county elections office.

“Over the last week, we’ve seen some voters who have put their ballot request form in an envelope and mailed it to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office,” said Chad Houck, Idaho’s Chief Deputy Secretary. “We are rerouting all of the ballot request forms we’ve received to the appropriate county elections office in order to make sure voters receive their ballots in time for the upcoming election. However, we want to remind voters who haven’t mailed in their ballot request forms yet that all they need to do is to fill out the form and put it in the mail. Voters do not need to put the form in an envelope or add any postage. Those who have already requested their ballot either online or by paper form from their county clerk for this election need not send in a second request.”

The ballot request form mailed to voters is bound together with an adhesive seal. Once voters break the seal and open the mailer, they will see the tear-off pre-paid, pre-addressed postcard.

The Secretary of State’s Office mailed more than 550,000 ballot request forms statewide. Most voters are returning their ballot request forms in the mail to their county elections office with no problems. As of Monday, less than 200 forms had been incorrectly mailed to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Voters can also request their ballot online at IdahoVotes.gov. Voters should be patient once they request their ballot. Requests are being processed as quickly as possible to give voters plenty of time to return their ballot by the 8 p.m. June 2 deadline.

Ballots will be counted and election results will be released on June 2, 2020.

You can see a sample Ballot Request mailer here.

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ABOUT LAWERENCE DENNEY

Lawerence Denney has served the people of Idaho since 1990. His public service began as a representative in District 13 and, following redistricting, he became a representative in District 9 until 2014. During that time, Denney served two terms as Majority Leader and three terms as Speaker of the House before successfully running for state office. He is currently in his second term as Idaho’s Secretary of State.

System Upgrade In Progress

Campaign Finance, Lobbyist Reporting, and Online Voter Tools are expected to be offline from April 9th at 5:00 p.m. MDT, through April 12th at 8:00 a.m. MDT to complete a system upgrade.

Per Idaho Code 67-6607, campaign finance is reported monthly during a campaign’s election year. The deadline for the March report falls on Saturday, April 10th. Due to the interruption caused by this upgrade, political treasurers will be allowed to file the March report until 11:59 p.m. MDT on Monday, April 12th.

While we do our best to ensure compliance with all deadlines in statute, the timing of this release is critical to ensure minimal (or no) impact to the May election cycle. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.