Absentee Ballots

By state statute, any one helping another person fill out an application must sign the bottom of the absentee ballot application.

 

Voting at a Referenda

Any person who is an elector of such town may vote and any citizen of the United States of the age of eighteen years or more who, jointly or severally, is liable to the town for taxes assessed against them on an assessment of not less than one thousand dollars on the last-completed grand list of such town. This does not include houses that are held in trust or vehicles that are leased. You must be the owner of record.

 

Voting by absentee ballot has privacy protections similar to voting by machine. Your name will not be connected to your vote when it is tallied!

Please call the Town Clerk's Office for information regarding deadlines for voting by Absentee Ballot and for emergency use of Absentee Ballots at (860) 491-3647. For information regarding registering to vote, please call the Registrar of Voters at (860) 491-2308 ext. 236. Or you can click this link to obtain any of these forms.

 

Applying for an Absentee Ballot

If a registered voter is unable to vote in person on Election Day, they may apply to the Town Clerk for an absentee ballot for any of the following reasons: 

  • Absence from the Town during all of the hours of voting
  • Illness
  • Physical disability
  • Active service in the armed forces
  • Duties as an election official at a polling place
  • Religious tenets

Before a ballot can be issued to the voter, an application must be completed and returned to this office. The application can be obtained in person, by mail, or by clicking here (the application must be printed from the web page, signed by the voter and mailed or hand delivered to the clerk’s office).

 

Permanent Absentee Ballots

Public Act 12-57

Public Act 12-57 in Connecticut, which states “An Act Concerning Permanent Absentee Ballot Status for the Permanently Disabled,” created permanent absentee balloting status for certain individuals and became effective January 1, 2013.

In General

To be eligible for permanent absentee ballot status, an elector must file with the Town Clerk an absentee ballot application together with a doctor’s certificate stating that they have a permanent disability and are unable to appear in person at their polling place. The doctor’s note should be on letterhead. There is no prescribed form - the doctor’s note and the absentee ballot application would satisfy the requirement of the law.

Eligibility

In January of each year the Registrars of Voters will send written notice to each elector with permanent absentee ballot status to determine if the elector continues to reside at the address on the permanent absentee ballot application. If the elector fails to respond to the notice, the permanent absentee ballot status will be removed, but the elector will remain on the voter registration list.

Procedure

The Freedom of Information Commission has indicated that they feel that any doctor’s note on file with the Town Clerk is not subject to disclosure. The original absentee ballot application, however, would continue to be subject to disclosure just like any other application for absentee ballot.

 

MOVE Act

The Federal MOVE ACT (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment) was signed into law by President Obama on October 28, 2009 and makes provisions for mailing a ballot electronically, upon request, to a voter who is in the military or who is an overseas citizen and their dependents. Electronic voting is only for elections that have federal offices on the ballot (Electronic means faxing as well as emailing).

The actual ballot is a blank ballot format that is sent along with a list of candidates. If you qualify for an emailed ballot, you may call the Town Clerk at 860-491-3647 x 2 or contact the Town Clerk through email.

The application for absentee ballot can now be faxed or emailed to us. It is important that the original application and the original ballot is received, via USPS mail by the Town Clerk before the election, primary or referenda day. Otherwise the ballot will not be counted. Do not include the application inside the ballot.

If you are not military personnel, an overseas voter, or their dependent, please follow the instructions outlined below to request an absentee ballot.

 

Instructions

1) Click here to open and download the absentee ballot application form.

2) Print the form on white paper.

3) Complete the required information on the form.

4) Mail to the following address:

Goshen Town Clerk
42C North Street
Goshen, CT 06756