Absentee voting is available if you meet specific criteria. The last day to request your ballot varies, as does the deadline to return the voted ballot. The deadline for most voters to request their absentee ballot is four days before Election Day. You can return your absentee ballot request form through mail, in person at your local elections office, or online. For most voters, the deadline to return the voted absentee ballot is a day before the election. You can sign up to track your absentee ballot on your Secretary of State website.  Absentee ballots begin being counted on Election Day.

Those who requested an absentee ballot but end up voting in person may only do so by a provisional ballot. Do not mail a ballot and vote in person. For specifics, you can find your local county clerk contact info here.

Please see below for more information.

You must have a reason to vote by mail, unless you are a military or overseas citizen. There are 12 reasons to vote by mail:

• Senior citizen 65 years of age or older
• A home or a nursing home or veterans' home resident and you have been previously approved for the Disability program, or you are disabled, home bound or a nursing or veterans' home resident and you are submitting current proof of disability with your application. For more information on the Disability Program, click here.
• A student, instructor, or professor (or spouse or dependents of the following,) in an institution of higher learning located outside the parish.
• A minister, priest, rabbi, or clergy (or spouse or dependents of the following,) assigned to a religious post outside the parish.
• A person who is or who expects to be temporarily outside the territorial limits of the state or absent from the parish during early voting and on Election Day.
• A person who has moved after the registration books closed (30 days prior to an election) to another parish and the new residence is more than 100 miles from the parish of former residence.
• A sequestered jury member.
• A person who expects to be hospitalized on Election Day and did not have such knowledge until after early voting week passed.
• A person who expects to be hospitalized on Election Day and who was hospitalized during early voting.
• A person who was hospitalized and released prior to an election but who is either hospitalized or restricted to bed during early voting and on Election Day.
• A person who by virtue of employment or occupation expects to be out of their precinct during early voting and on Election Day.
• You are involuntarily confined in an institution for mental treatment outside your parish of registration and you are not interdicted and not judicially declared incompetent.
• You are incarcerated or expect to be incarcerated in an institution inside or outside your parish of registration and you are not under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony

To request normal absentee ballots by mail, you must complete and return a request for absentee ballot indicating the reason you are not able to vote in person absentee or in person on Election Day.

You may request an absentee ballot as early as 60 days prior to the election. Your voted ballot must be witnessed and signed in order to be accepted.

Timeline to request an absentee ballot by mail

• Military Personnel: Anytime before 4:30pm on the day before election day
• US Citizens residing outside the US: Anytime before 4:30pm on the day before election day
• Hospitalization: By 4:30pm on the day before election day
• All others: Anytime before 4:30pm on the 4th day before election day

Deadlines for returning your voted ballots

• Military Personnel: By 8pm on election day
• US citizens residing outside the US: By 8pm on election day
• Hospitalization: By 8pm on election day
• All others: By 4:30pm on the day before election day