Absentee Voting for 2020 Presidential Election Begins September 9 in Alabama and All Registered Voters are Eligible to Participate

By Jim Murray | Business, Science and Technology Department | Central Library

As it has with most aspects of our lives, COVID-19 has created changes to the presidential voting process in Alabama. In July in response to public health concerns about voting in person at a polling place, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill issued an emergency rule that greatly eased restrictions on who is eligible to apply for an absentee ballot for the November 3 General Election. In the past absentee ballots were, for the most part, limited to Alabama citizens who had physical disabilities that made it difficult for them to vote in person, or those who were living out of state, such as members of the armed services serving overseas or students attending college elsewhere. But the pandemic created a state of emergency that called into question the desirability of encouraging large groups of people to gather together to cast their ballots on election day.

So, for the time being, all registered voters are eligible to apply for an absentee ballot. The application includes nine separate boxes that the applicant can check to indicate the reason for their wanting to be an absentee voter. For those with concerns about COVID-19, the appropriate box to check is the second one, which reads “I have a physical illness or infirmity with prevents my attendance at the polls [ID REQUIRED].” 

Applications for an absentee ballot must either be submitted in person or by mail to the office of the Absentee Election Manager in the county in which the applicant is a registered voter. For Jefferson County, applications for those citizens registered in the Birmingham division can be viewed and downloaded here. Voters registered in the Bessemer division of Jefferson County can access their application here. The deadline to submit an application is Thursday, October 29.

If their application is approved, voters will receive an absentee ballot for the 2020 General Election and they can submit it beginning September 9. Similar to the application, absentee ballots must be mailed or hand delivered to the voter’s Absentee Election Manager. The last day that a ballot can be hand delivered or postmarked is Monday, November 2. 

Complete instructions on how and where to submit both an absentee application and an absentee ballot are available on the Alabama Secretary of State’s website.