What you need to know to make sure your absentee, mail-in ballot gets counted
Indiana absentee, mail-in ballots must be received by county election administrators by 6 p.m. on Election Day. That means, if you still have yours, it’s too late to put it in the mail.
Indiana’s absentee, vote-by-mail ballot deadline doesn’t consider when that ballot was put in the mail or postmarked. The ballot only counts if the county election administrator receives it by 6 p.m. on Election Day.
But you don’t have to mail in that ballot. You or a family member can return the signed, sealed envelope with ballot inside to the county election board office by that Election Day deadline.
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If you don’t know where that is, or can’t make it there, there is another option. If you have an absentee, mail-in ballot, you can go to your polling place on Election Day, surrender that ballot, and cast an in-person ballot instead.
Under Indiana law, family members allowed to return a voter’s absentee ballot are a:
- spouse
- parent
- father-in-law
- mother-in-law
- child
- son-in-law
- daughter-in-law
- grandparent
- grandchild
- brother
- sister
- brother-in-law
- sister-in-law
- uncle
- aunt
- nephew
- or niece
Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.
