An initial 5,000 absentee ballots in Shelby County went out in the mail Wednesday with thousands more soon to follow as an unprecedented number of voters seek to avoid the polls during the pandemic.
The county election commission is receiving on average 500 absentee ballot requests daily, or about 20,000 total, so far, for the November election. That’s already more than double those who sought the option in the 2016 general election.
Administrator Linda Phillips says the commission should catch up to processing previously received requests by early next week. After that, she’s aiming for a same-day turnaround for new requests.
For those feeling anxious, Phillips says ballots can be tracked on a state website.
“They’ll show when we mail the ballot and then secondly, it’ll show when the voter sends it back to us, and we’ve checked it in,” she says, adding that the website has a one-day lag time. “So the ballots that went out today, won’t show up on the website until tomorrow.”
Earlier this year, Tennessee courts ordered a statewide expansion of absentee voting due to the pandemic. But the new rules still require a reason to vote by mail such as having a health problem that puts a voter at high risk should they contract the coronavirus.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 27. Once completed, the ballot must be received by the election commission through the mail by election day. It cannot be dropped off.
Phillips says staff are prepared to process up to 100,000 absentee ballots.
More information about how to correctly fill out your absentee ballot can be found in this online tutorial.