TEXAS, USA — To date, more than 8100 people in McLennan County and 8500 in Bell County have requested an absentee ballot from their election office. People also continue to call to ask for an update.
But when exactly are counties required to send those back? 6 News tracked down some answers Wednesday.
According to the Texas Secretary of State's 2020 Election Law Calendar, counties technically can mail ballots out anytime after August 28 when the ballots are certified and as late as October 3, which is 30 days before election day.
There is an exception for mailing overseas and military ballots, which must be done by the 45th day before the election, which is September 19.
Ballots received and approved by a county after September 19 must be mailed back out to the voter within seven days. This leaves a lot of room for local counties to decide when they will start the mailing process based on the challenges they are currently facing. It is not particularly helpful for voters who try to find out when their ballot will arrive.
6 News spoke to the McLennan County Election Administration Office Monday and called multiple other offices on Wednesday to ask when the public should expect those ballots to be mailed.
McLennan County Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe told 6 News Monday that the ballots were mailed out that same day. The county was ready to mail the ballots beforehand but had to spend thousands of dollars to reprint them after Green Party candidates were allowed on the ballot a the last minute.
Coryell County Tax Assessor and Election Official Justin Carothers told 6 News Wednesday most of their absentee ballots had been sent out last Friday. Carothers said between 20 and 30 people have called the county each day to ask for an update.
6 News also spoke to Bell County Elections Administrator Matthew Dutton Wednesday afternoon. Dutton said Bell County works with a third party company to print and mail the ballots. Those ballots would most likely not be sent out until early next week.
Dutton said the ballots took longer to prepare this year because local cities and school districts had postponed their May elections until November and quite a few additional races had to be listed.
"We added a whole lot of cities and schools and water districts. A bunch of stuff that usually gets taken care of in may but got put on our ballot here in November," Dutton said.
6 News called Milam County, Falls County and Lampasas County on Wednesday as well but was not able to reach the local administrator.
Voters can find the number for their local county election official here.
Election officials told 6 News ballots should only take a few days to reach voters once they are mailed. There were no issues with the United States Postal Service so far.
"If they (the voter) are in the county, and we sent those out Friday, I would say most of those people have already received them. Even with a delay, they will all have them by Friday at the latest," Carothers said. "We are already getting them back."
Also on KCENTV.com: