ATLANTA — More people are voting absentee than ever before.
As of Friday, Oct. 30 at noon - the last day of the early-voting period - more than 3.7 million people had cast an early ballot. More than 1.1 million of those votes were cast through an absentee ballot.
The closer it gets to Election Day, the more some are concerned with how long it could take an absentee ballot to make its way through the mail.
So, 11Alive set up a little experiment to find the best way to vote absentee. We tracked eight people in various parts of the metro who decided to vote absentee.
- Dorothy Harris – Clayton Co. // USPS mail
- Nanci Nix – Clarke Co. // Dropbox
- David Hagan – Gwinnett Co. // Bailed and voted early
- Latoya Michelle – Rockdale Co. // Dropbox
- David Savage – Cobb Co. // Dropbox
- Kristi Wamberg – Fulton Co. // Dropbox, but ballot was lost; bailed and voted early
- Alice Meihls – Gwinnett Co. // Dropbox
- Cady Carnes – DeKalb Co. // USPS mail
“I didn’t want to deal with the mail anymore,” David Savage said.
"I couldn’t go to the polls and vote because I can’t stand in line that long,” Dorothy Harris said.
“I have breast cancer,” Nanci Nix said. "I was diagnosed during the pandemic. I just felt I needed to be safe."
For all eight voters, 11Alive logged the time it took from the date they requested their ballot to the date it was confirmed received.
Most used a county elections dropbox. Only voter Dorothy dropped it in the mail. Voter David Hagan decided to bail and stand in line to vote early. Kristi Wamberg made the same decision after her returned absentee ballot got lost. We’re still waiting for an explanation from Fulton County on that.
When it comes to voting absentee, we discovered it took an average of 37 days to vote, from start to finish, for the remaining six voters we tracked.
The time between when a ballot was placed in a dropbox or the mail, and confirmation was much shorter. It took an average of five days. The delays showed up in how long it took to get the ballot in the first place.
“This is the most I’ve ever been worried about voting,” Dorthy Harris said.
Harris, an Army veteran, requested her ballot on Sept. 1. It finally reached her house on Sept. 20. After dropping it in the mail the next day, she said it got mailed back to her because it didn’t have a stamp.
So, she requested a new one and went through the process again. She dropped it off at the post office on Oct. 2. BallotTrax confirmed its receipt on Oct. 8. That means it took her a total of 37 days to vote.
“It took too long,” she said.
David Savage, meanwhile, "waited and waited."
It took Savage 16 days to get his ballot. After a two-day turnaround to fill it out and drop it off, it took another five days to confirm its receipt. That means it took him 23 days to vote.
“You have to be motivated to try and track the stuff down,” Savage added.
With the election now just days away, keep in mind the time to make sure your vote will count.
You can request an absentee ballot up until 5:00 p.m. on the Friday before the election, but remember, it must be received by the close of polls on Election Day at 7 p.m.
This close to the election, election officials recommend using a dropbox, hand-delivering the ballot to the election office, or voting in person.