Absentee Voting

For a copy of the application click here. Please mail to Voter Registration Office, PO Box 947, Bamberg, SC 29003.

To complete the application online, click here.

 

Any elector wishing to vote by absentee ballot must apply to the County Voter Registration Board. Applications for absentee ballots can be requested anytime during the calendar year in which the election is to be held in which the elector wishes to vote by absentee ballot. The registration board must receive completed application by 5:00 p.m., four days before the election if the ballot is to be mailed. However, any elector applying in person may apply until 5:00 p.m. on the day before the election.

 

Pursuant to the Help America Vote Act: Application for absentee ballot can be requested anytime for UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) voters using the Federal Post Card Application or state application. Check with the County Voter Registration Office for additional details.

 

The absentee ballot application form may be requested by the voter himself, a member of his/her immediate family or by the authorized representative of voter. The voter or a member of his immediate family may request the application in person, by telephone or by mail. A voter's authorized representative must request an absentee ballot application in person or by mail only, and must himself be a registered voter and must sign an oath to the effect that he fits the statutory definition of such a representative.

 

Authorized representatives are registered electors who, with a voter's permission, act for a voter unable to go to the polls because of illness or disability resulting in his confinement in a hospital, sanitarium, nursing home, or place of residence; or a voter unable because of physical disability to go to his polling place, or because of such disability unable to vote at his polling place due to existing architectural barriers which deny him physical access to the polling place, voting booth or voting apparatus.

Immediate family is defined as: Spouse, Parent, Child, Sister, Brother, Grandparents, Grandchildren, Mothers-in-law, Fathers-in-law, Brothers-in-law, Sisters-in-law, Sons-in-law and Daughters-in-law.

 

If an elector is admitted to a hospital as an emergency patient on the day of election or within a four day period before the election, a member of the immediate family may obtain and complete an application, receive the ballot and deliver it personally to the patient who will vote it. That family member will then personally deliver the ballot back to the County Voter Registration Board. These ballots must be returned before closing of polls on election day.

 

A candidate or member of a candidate's paid campaign staff, including volunteers reimbursed for time expended on campaign activity, may not request an absentee ballot application for any person unless the person is a member of their immediate family.

 

Additional Absentee Voting Information for the 2020 General Election on November 3, 2020:
                1. The dates for absentee voting are October 5 – November 2, 2020.
                2. In-person absentee voting is available at the Voter Registrations and Elections office at 1234 North St, Bamberg, on Mondays – Fridays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. from 10/5 – 11/2.
                3. Absentee voting IS NOT PERMITTED on Election Day (11/3). A voter must vote at his/her precinct if voting on November 3, 2020.
                4. Bamberg County Elections will open a satellite absentee voting office on October 5, 2020, at the Kearse Agricultural Building, 847 Calhoun St, Bamberg. This office will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9 a. – 1 p.m.
                5. To request an absentee application, a voter can go to scvotes.org, however, a completed, signed application must be mailed or hand-delivered to the Bamberg County Voter Registration and Elections Office, PO Box 947, Bamberg, SC 29003. If you are unable to print an application, the office will mail you one (that you must mail or bring back). Call the office at 803-245-3028 to request your absentee application be mailed to you. Requesting an application online is not sufficient to process an absentee voting application; the application MUST BE received in the Bamberg County office. A new request must be made for the General Election, regardless of how a voter placed his/her vote in previous elections.
                6. The satellite absentee voting office is being opened to accommodate the anticipated high voter turn-out and to ensure social distancing.
                7. The Voter Registration and Elections Office will be open on Saturday, October 31, 2020 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. for in-person absentee voting.

                8. South Carolinians voting absentee by mail must now have their signatures on ballot return envelopes witnessed.