5417.01
How Can I Vote if I am Hospitalized?
California Law has special procedures to help a voter who is hospitalized and wants to vote.
§ First, you must have register to vote at least 15 days before Election Day.
§ If you are not able to vote in person, don’t want to vote in person, or are unable to go to the polling place, you can vote either by:
P Completing the medical emergency ballot; or
P
Completing
the regular absentee ballot.
Call your County Elections Office to find out about the special requirements for requesting a Medical Emergency Ballot. To find the phone number, look in the phone book under county listings and locate your “County Election Official”. Some hospitals have volunteers who may help you get the Medical Emergency Ballot. Many people ask for this type of ballot when the deadline for asking for a regular ballot (seven days before an election) has passed.
Within seven days of an election, a registered voter who is unable to vote in person at the polls due to confinement in a hospital can fill out a form to authorize someone to go to the Elections Office to pick up a ballot for him.
If it is less than seven days before an election, you can write out a statement requesting a Medical Emergency Ballot by stating that you are in a hospital and need the ballot because it is within seven days of an election and you cannot vote in person. You can name anyone in the written request to do this for you. You must sign under penalty of perjury that you have asked a person to pick up this ballot on your behalf. You need to sign the request. If you are unable to sign the request, someone can help you sign with an “x”. When that happens, the person helping you can complete the request for you and write the words “witnessed by” and then sign her own name.
If it is more than seven days before an election, you can still write out a statement requesting a Medical Emergency Ballot, but you are limited to only certain people who can pick the ballot up for you. Only people in your household can pick up this ballot.
For registered voters who cannot go to the poll because they are in a hospital and it is more than seven days before an election, the Regular Absentee Ballot is also available. Anyone can pick up an absentee ballot.
Call the voter registration and elections office in your county by looking in the phone book under the county listings and locate the phone number for your County Elections Official for more information.
The application may be delivered to the Voter Registration and Elections Office up through Election Day.
You may ask any another person to help you mark your ballot. But, no one can mark your ballot unless you ask for help.
After using the ballot to vote, you should:
§ In the space provided on the Identification Envelope, write name of the person whom you authorize to return your ballot.
§ Sign and date the envelope.
§ Place the ballot in the Identification Envelope and seal it.
That person is to sign the back of the Identification Return
Envelope in the space provided. Return the ballot to the Elections Office or to
any polling place in the county by