US Citizens dropping election ballots off at US Consulate?

[bangmai]

My absentee ballot instruction says I can do this. It's only slightly out of my way. Has anyone done this? Is it as straightforward as it should be? Anything I should know? Thanks!

[prism]

My absentee ballot instruction says I can do this. It's only slightly out of my way. Has anyone done this? Is it as straightforward as it should be? Anything I should know? Thanks!

I have. Just drop it off at the security booth or inside during citizen services hours. Edited September 24, 2015 by prism

[bangmai]

My absentee ballot instruction says I can do this. It's only slightly out of my way. Has anyone done this? Is it as straightforward as it should be? Anything I should know? Thanks!

I have. Just drop it off at the security booth or inside during citizen services hours.

Cool, one of my favorite lunch spots is over there, and my savings will almost pay for a good one. Did you just use a normally addressed envelope made out to your local City Clerk or Election Official?

[BKKSnowBird]

Is your favorite lunch spot LaMonita? That is mine in that area!

[CMBob]

I've always just mailed my absentee ballot back to my city clerk regardless of the nature of the election matter; however, nice to know of the option.

Questions:

(1) Is this option only available for an election which includes a federal matter? (e.g., the only election for me this November is for Mayor and City Council members of my dinky home city and I've already mailed off my ballot. The next "federal" matter will be the primary early next year.

(2) Is there any federal matter on the ballot anywhere this November? I can't think of one.

[CMBob]

Did you just use a normally addressed envelope made out to your local City Clerk or Election Official?

At least for me - not 100% sure if this is a local, state, and/or federal requirement - it's required to write on the outside of the envelope just below the return address the following: "Official Absent Voter's Ballot." That requirement is written in every set of absentee ballot instructions I've ever received.

[bangmai]

Did you just use a normally addressed envelope made out to your local City Clerk or Election Official?

At least for me - not 100% sure if this is a local, state, and/or federal requirement - it's required to write on the outside of the envelope just below the return address the following: "Official Absent Voter's Ballot." That requirement is written in every set of absentee ballot instructions I've ever received.

I receive mine by email. Last year part of the instructions were a sheet with dotted lines that you fold and tape to make the envelope. The instructions last year mentioned the Consulates. I will re-read the instructions again this year and report back. It would go to the same local election official, whether it is a local election or a Presidential election, and there can be a lot of very local matters on the same ballot as the presidential candidates. Primary elections would be a bit of a different animal, too, so we better check on that, because that will be in several months.

[CMBob]

I receive mine by email.

I also receive ballots by email and have for a couple of years. Along with the email came the instructions I noted and I'm now guessing it's a Michigan requirement only (since I don't see anything about that on the federal websites).

Just visited a federal website and see the following written:

U.S. Embassy Pouch/APO/FPO You can drop off your ballot request or voted ballot at the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate for return to the United States, or you can have someone drop it off for you. It must be addressed to your local election officials and have sufficient postage or be in a postage-paid envelope. A postage-paid envelope is available on the FVAP web site. Contact the voting assistance officer or visit the Embassy website for specific instructions.

[bangmai]

Here is a copy of a postage paid envelope that should be suitable for the Consulate. My local copy shop printed it directly on to an envelope for 2 THB (inc envelope). The directions say do not cut and paste this on another envelope. I considered just making an envelope out of the paper, but it didn't really seem to rattle their cage, when I asked them to print me an envelope. They are very large volume up here by CMU...The address is blank, so just put the address of your local election official...should be on your ballot instructions.

2015 1103 General UOCAVA Postage Paid Return Envelope.pdf

Do it at 95%. otherwise it will truncate the edges..YMMV.

[elgenon]

My absentee ballot instruction says I can do this. It's only slightly out of my way. Has anyone done this? Is it as straightforward as it should be? Anything I should know? Thanks!

I have. Just drop it off at the security booth or inside during citizen services hours.

Can you get inside? Last time I went I couldn't get in the door without an appointment.

[prism]

My absentee ballot instruction says I can do this. It's only slightly out of my way. Has anyone done this? Is it as straightforward as it should be? Anything I should know? Thanks!

I have. Just drop it off at the security booth or inside during citizen services hours.

Can you get inside? Last time I went I couldn't get in the door without an appointment.

Last year I showed them my ballot return envelope and they allowed me in. Maybe that's changed now. Other times I've also left my ballot at the guard window and they informed me that they'll get it through.

[Oscar2]

why wouldn't you just drop it in the post???

[CMBob]

why wouldn't you just drop it in the post???

I'm with you on that one and I'm trying to figure out what benefit there might be to using the consulate/embassy drop-off method. Cost-wise, seems there is no difference (ignoring any additional cost to go to the consulate). Perhaps (heck if I know), there's the possibility that it could be faster....but, frankly, I doubt it (I have no idea how long it takes for the consulate to fly out the mailings and I'd guess that somebody in the State Department just dumps the stuff in the regular mail once the mailings get to DC). But I suppose there would be benefit to this process in a country where the postal service isn't trustworthy (I have no issue with the Thai system as no mailing I've ever posted here has failed to get back to the States...even though it's difficult to figure why it takes 9-18 days to get there).

If/when anybody actually talks to somebody at the consulate, it would be interesting to know the procedure and timing of their handling of these mailings (and/or why they might think we should use this service).

[Jeffkp]

I just received a voter registration form from my county in US. I moved to CM earlier this year and just sold my house. I no longer have a local US address. Do I still fill it out using my old address? I'm rather confused!

[NancyL]

The consulate told us that for voting purposes you continue to use the address where you last voted in the U.S.

We checked this out because we had emailed the township clerk where we last lived about mailing absentee ballot to us and she had ignored our email. That's when I checked with the consulate and learned it was indeed her responsibility to continue to mail absentee ballots to us here in Thailand even though in her words when I called to tell her "aren't you those strange people who sold that rose farm and moved to Taiwan?"

I pointed out we're still U.S. citizens with a right to vote and the U.S. Consulate says it's her responsibility to mail absentee ballots to us since that "rose farm" was our last U.S. residence. Haven't had a problem since. (well, once I told her to use the address EXACTLY as printed in the email since obviously she has a sketchy sense of global geography.)

Edited September 27, 2015 by NancyL

[Jeffkp]

Many thanks! So you're those strange folks with the rose farm?