An example of the application letters sent voters who requested to be on the annual mail-in vote or absentee ballot list. Courtesy of Butler Bureau of Election

Butler County election officials said they have mailed out all the annual absentee and mail-in ballot applications for this year’s upcoming election.

Pennsylvania election code Act 77 allows residents to vote absentee or by mail-in ballot on an annual or permanent basis. The letters containing the application for voters who selected to be on the mail-in or absentee annual list last year have been sent and the Butler County Board of Elections is urging those who received their applications for this year to fill out and return them as soon as possible.

Butler County currently has more than 27,000 permanent or annual absentee and mail-in voters, according to Chantell McCurdy, director of the Bureau of Elections.

“Usually we send (the applications) by February, but this year, because the primary election is in April, we sent them out at the very beginning of the year, on Jan. 2,” McCurdy said.

McCurdy said she wanted every voter in Butler County to know the letters have been sent to those on the annual mail-in or absentee list.

“When you get that application, if you do get (one), that means you are on the annual list,” McCurdy said “There are instructions that they can call us to be removed from the annual list if they don’t wish to receive that application every year.”

To receive an absentee or mail-in ballot, voters must fill out the application and mail it in or drop it off at the Bureau of Elections in the Butler County Courthouse at 227 W. Cunningham St.

“We don’t want people to wait until March to submit the application and then be put at the end of the list and not get their ballot in time,” McCurdy said. “We are hoping to mail out ballots at the end of March. The sooner they apply, the higher up they are on that list. So as soon as we have a certified ballot from the state, we can start getting them out to people.”

Residents who want an annual application can contact the election bureau.

“We will mail them out a paper application and on that paper application they can check the box and that they would like to on the annual list,” McCurdy said. “And what that will do is it will sign them up to receive the ballot for this primary and they will get the ballot in the fall. And then next year at the beginning of the year in January, they’ll receive an application again from us for the year 2025.”

An example of the application letters sent voters who requested to be on the annual mail-in vote or absentee ballot list. Courtesy of Butler Bureau of Election

An example of the application letters sent voters who requested to be on the annual mail-in vote or absentee ballot list. Courtesy of Butler Bureau of Election