Montgomery County voting deadlines fast approaching
The presidential election is now less than two weeks away. We’re finally on the home stretch of this election cycle, and if you registered to vote by the deadline last Monday, October 21, you’ll be receiving a card in the mail soon from the Board of Registrars that will confirm the precinct where you need to cast your vote. Alabama is only one of three states in the nation that does not offer early voting and requires an eligible reason to vote by mail.
So, if you won’t be able to make it to the polls on November 5 and want to vote by absentee ballot, important deadlines are fast approaching. Absentee applications must be mailed in by next Tuesday, October 29th. Once you receive your ballot in the mail, it needs to be filled out and returned quickly.
Montgomery County Probate Judge JC Love said, “You can hand-deliver your absentee ballot application to the absentee election manager’s office and that is 251 South Lawrence St. at the Montgomery County courthouse on the first floor. That deadline is Monday, November 4 by 5 PM, and all absentee ballots if they are placed in the mail must be received by noon on election day November 5. I’ll tell any voter not to wait until the last minute to mail your absentee ballot back.”
For those voting in person, Love says since the presidential primary last spring, only two precincts in Montgomery County have changed. The Chisholm Community Center is being renovated, so people in that precinct will vote at Better Covenant Ministries on Fairground Road. Residents who usually vote at Macedonia Miracle Kingdom will now cast their ballots at Twin Gates Community Center on Coretta Drive.
“I advise any and all residents to go ahead and find out where you’re going to go and vote before you go. You can go to the Montgomery Election Center’s website montgomeryvotesal.gov or to the Alabama Secretary of State’s website at alabamavotes.gov or get our free mobile app. You can find it in the Google Play Apple Store. There’s a link there and you can put in your address, and it will tell you where you’re going to vote in this election,” said Love.
Love says his office is busy training between 600 to 650 poll workers to man the 49 precincts in Montgomery County.
“I know in 2020 we had people who got in line at three or four o’clock in the morning , and we will probably have long lines this year. One of the other things that we have, voters can go ahead here in Montgomery County and see what the wait times are at the precincts on election day. They can find that at the election center’s website too,” said Love.
“We are probably looking back at our 2008 and 2012 numbers that really were the two largest elections that we had where we had about 65% voter turnout, so we anticipate that this year,” said Love. Judge Love says safety is a priority.
“At this point in time, there are no threats targeting Alabama or the Montgomery area but we have a plan in place to make sure everyone is safe and secure on election day. If circumstances change we will adapt what we do, but we want to encourage people to come out to the polls. Don’t let those people who may be enemies of democracy keep you from exercising the most important right you have as an American – the right to vote,” said Love.
To see sample ballots and for more election information click here.
