BUFFALO, N.Y. — 2 On Your Side has a few reminders for you about Election Day, especially if you didn't vote in-person last year because of COVID-19.
First, you need to find your polling place. To do that, look at your voter registration card, or if that isn't handy, just go to your county board of elections website. In Erie County, scroll down and click on "voter lookup and view sample ballot." You can look up your polling location by typing in your address.
And what about masks this year? It depends on your polling location. Your polling place might be at a school that requires masks inside, so to be safe, just bring one with you.
If for some reason, you get to your polling place and there's an issue with your registration, you can request a provisional ballot.
Also, remember ballot selfies are illegal in New York State.
And, if you requested an absentee ballot, but would rather vote in-person, you can still do that.
"Just destroy the absentee ballot and go vote in-person. We discourage that because we don't want ballots laying around, and also it just creates more work for our staff. If somebody were to say mail in a ballot, but they do then go vote early or vote on Election Day, it just, our staff catches it, we flag it, we pull the ballot that they voted earlier and we discard that," says Erie County Board of Elections Commissioner Jeremy Zellner.
Here are some key dates and times to pay attention to. You can vote any time from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Election Day. If you requested an absentee ballot, it needs to be postmarked by Election Day, November 2. And, military ballots have to be returned by November 15.
You can also drop-off your absentee ballot in-person to any polling place on Election Day.
And remember, as long as you're in line before 9 on Election Night, you can vote, even if you get to the front of the line and get your ballot after 9, your vote still counts.