Supervisor opens absentee ballot drop-offs

Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes announced to Historic City News readers that beginning tomorrow, October 11 and continuing until Election Day, November 6, 2012, St Johns County voters who have requested an absentee ballot will have 11 convenient locations where they can be cast — no postage required.

Oakes is standing true to her pledge to make voting as easy and convenient as possible in St Johns County; taking advantage of new technologies whenever available, pushing voter education programs, offering extended hours of operation, and now, providing these free drop-off locations for ballots that would otherwise have to vote by mail.

“Absentee ballots cannot be turned in at the polls on Election Day,” Oakes told reporters. “But all eleven of these locations will offer a final Election Day collection of those absentee ballots as late as 4:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m., or they can be turned in at the Elections Office until 7:00 p.m.”

“Voters are requested to go into the facilities, look for the RED ballot drop-off box inside, and then deposit the ballot themselves into the secured, locked box,” Oakes explained. “Elections Office Staff will be visiting the locations and emptying the boxes — no one other than our staff will be handling the absentee ballots.”