A few inquiries have come our way recently regarding the Application for a Ballot by Mail (ABBM) in Texas. The application form contains a series of checkboxes to indicate whether you are voting in a primary or general election, and whether you are voting in the Democratic or Republican Primary. This is a recipe for confusion, even for intelligent voters. So allow us to break it down for you and anyone else who might ask.
Checkboxes to Check
The instructions above the checkboxes for questions 6a and 6b provide all you really need to know. Unless you are apply to vote by mail specifically in a primary election, check just one box:
- If you are requesting a ballot just for this fall's general election, check November Election.
- If you are requesting to be sent ballot for the remainder of calendar year 2020, check Annual Application.
The November election may not be the last election in your area: There may be special elections in December resulting from vacancies in some offices. The state has held such elections as recently as 2018, when Sylvia García was elected to the US Congress before finishing her term in the Texas Senate.
Runoffs
- There are no runoffs in statewide general elections and most elections for county offices.
- Primary elections with three or more candidates may have runoffs because state law demands that the nominee win a majority of the vote.
- If your city government has municipal elections this fall, there may be runoffs following those.
- Check the Any Resulting Runoff box only if you intend to be out of the county for the runoff election.
Criteria
Beyond that, the Secretary of State's Office has a page on its website listing the requirements for voting by mail. You must meet at least one of the criteria below:
- be 65 years or older;
- be sick or disabled;
- be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
- be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.
Remember, if you are in jail and not yet convicted of a felony offense, you are still eligible to vote.
Important Dates
The deadline for submitting an ABBM to vote in the 2020 general election is Friday 23 October. This is the date by which the application must be received at your County Clerk's or Election Administrator's office, so send it a week ahead just to be safe.
This is also a good opportunity to remind Texas residents that the last day to register to vote in the 2020 general election is Monday 5 October.
If you need to continue voting by mail for local and special elections in 2021, you will need to submit another application after 1 January 2021.
No Green Primary
If you are concerned about the appearance of checkboxes for only two parties under Primary Elections, fear not. In Texas, the Green and Libertarian Parties do not hold primary elections. We nominate our candidates for partisan elections each even-numbered year through a four-step convention process:
- Precinct Caucuses—held a week after the big-party primaries, usually in one place for all voting precincts in a county, to start the process of selecting delegates to the nationwide Presidential Nominating Convention
- County Conventions—held a few days later, for offices with districts entirely within one county
- District Conventions—the following week, for offices with districts covering more than one county
- The State Convention—usually in April, to nominate candidates for statewide offices
VERY IMPORTANT: If you voted in a primary election, that does not constrain you from voting for candidates of other parties! Again, even very intelligent voters aren't clear about that. Your primary vote has no direct impact on your vote in the general election. Even though your official party affiliation may be Democrat or Republican in the eyes of the State of Texas, your party identity can easily change between March and November, especially if your former party has shafted your preferred candidate (hey, it's been known to happen, right?). Your vote is your own, and no state or party can dictate which buttons you push.