Options For Using Absentee Ballots

(CBS) - The deadlines have long since passed for registering to vote in the upcoming elections, but folks who are registered still have options if they want to use absentee ballots.
 
Executive director Debra Cleaver at www.LongDistanceVoter.org thinks one particular segment of society is trending toward absentee ballots, because they don't have time to get to the polls:

"Surprisingly, we get a lot of women over 30, which leads me to believe they're working moms who are up early, getting kids ready for school, work all day, and then come home to take care of their families."

In Pennsylvania, absentee ballot forms must be in by the Friday before the election. That's for folks whose jobs might take them elsewhere on election day: military personnel or students away at college, but who are registered at their home addresses.

Folks in New Jersey and Delaware must submit the mail-in ballots by election day. New Jersey is among the nearly 30 states offering "no-excuse" absentee voting, allowing any registered voter to vote absentee without giving a reason for doing so.

The deputy policy director at Philadelphia's The Committee of 70, Sean Scully, thinks Pennsylvania should do likewise:

"It's the modern way of doing elections."

Reported by Steve Tawa, KYW Newsradio