ABSENTEE BALLOT

How to Vote by Mail in ballot

With the election coming soon, many Americans are hoping to cast their ballot to vote to perform their civic duty. Due to COVID-19, there has been an increase in mail-in ballots to avoid risking transmission at the voting polls. For anyone who has decided that they are going to vote through mail, this is a guide for you to ensure that your vote will be counted and represented in the election.

In order to vote by mail, you must first request your ballot. In North Carolina, anyone can request an absentee ballot. There is no requirement of a special circumstance or reason for it. To request the ballot, you have two options. The first is filling out an Absentee Ballot Request Form on the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) website and mailing it to the local county board of elections. The second option is by filling out a form online. This form can also be found on the NCSBE website. In North Carolina, you have until Tuesday, October 27 at 5 p.m. to submit your request for an absentee ballot.

The next step is to complete your ballot upon arrival. While filling in the ballot, you must be with one witness. This witness can be a friend, family member, colleague, etc. The witness does not need to see who you are specifically voting for; they only need to see that you are completing the ballot. Once you’ve completely filled out your ballot, your witness will have to complete and sign the witness certification that comes with the absentee ballot. After this, you will need to place your ballot into the return envelope provided. Make sure to sign complete and sign the return envelope.

Once you’ve completely finished your

Jalen Rose ballot, you will need to return it to your county board of elections. There are Staff Writer multiple ways to go about this. The first is by mailing the ballot directly to your county board of elections. The ballot must be postmarked on or before Election Day and must be received by November 6th at 5 p.m. The next option is to drop off the ballot in person at your county board of elections office before 5 p.m. on Election Day. The final option is to drop off the ballot in person at any early voting site in your county during the voting hours (this option is only available from October 15 to October 31). You can find your county board of elections office and early voting sites by searching on the NCSBE website. Happy voting!

Photo obtained from Creative Commons of absentee ballot from the 2020 primary election.

We’re Getting Down to the Wire

Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), and Congressman John Lewis were two of the most influential people that this generation has witnessed fight to end systemic racism and gender inequality. From RBG’s determination of making sure women had a voice in this world to Lewis’s continuous message of unity being the only way forward as a country, these two groundbreaking individuals represented change. People that were willing to step out and do the unthinkable in the midst of adversity, never losing sight of what it’s important and necessary.

Now how do you think they were able to step up to the plate?

Simple. By being advocates for equality and justice.

This past year alone, we have seen history repeat itself, as we continue to experience cruelty and ignorance, pertaining to the pandemic and the lives of Black people in the country AND in the walls of our university. And we have constantly fought back to assure our place in this world. With our protests and our letters, we were able to make our voices heard.

So the question is why does that stop at casting in our ballot?

Why do we speak so passionately about the things that need to change but don’t participate in the actual event that can bring leaders to make those changes come to fruition?

There is no excuse.

You have probably heard and seen this pitch for voting so many times, but it is crucial you know how much your voice really matters in this upcoming election.

The media has continuously tried to fill our minds with myths about voting that may have given us the wrong picture about what voting is and it needs to be debunked.

Here are the main ones.

MYTH 1

Your vote doesn’t matter- Though it may not seem like your single vote doesn’t matter with everything that’s going, it does.There have been many elections in the past two decades that have been determined or tied by one single vote. Literally one vote can make a difference so don’t ever think yours can’t.

MYTH 2

President elections are the only ones that matter- The president and vice president can’t be focused on one state all the time. That’s why we have governors, senators, and an attorney general. State and local elections can have more influence than presidential elections because they work with issues and pass policies that affect your community. They even have proven to be more productive than Congress in passing bills, so vote in your local elections as well because they directly impact your and your family.

MYTH 3

Mail-in voting leads to voter fraud- We have seen this issue plastered all over the media, for months. Many, including the

Oluwajoba president believe that mail in voting will ogun Staff Writer play as an disadvantage, but in truth there has been no real evidence of fraud. Some states even vote entirely by mail and have no issues. The bottom line is that voting by mail is most likely not to harm the election. If you want to vote by mail, make sure you request a ballot and check for the deadline to have it sent so that it can count. This is a critical time in our country and we need all hands on deck. The government is of the people, by the people, for the people right? So let’s make sure that we get the right ones elected. Let’s continue the job that RBG and John Lewis already laid out for us; they already set the blueprint, all we gotta do is follow it through. Don’t complain about the problem if you haven’t even participated in the solution.