Voters Need to Update Information at Election Office

Over 2,000 voters will have to fill out a special form in order to vote next year if they do not make contact with the election commission office in advance of election day.
Dennis Stanley, DeKalb County Administrator of Elections, said his office recently completed the state-mandated Address Confirmation Program and over 2,000 voters were mailed letters asking them to confirm or update
their residential and mailing addresses. “If a voter has not voted since November 4, 2008 or had any kind of
contact with the election office, they were mailed the letter asking for address confirmation or an update of their address,” Stanley said. “Contact” means voting or filing a duplicate voter registration form, or notifying the election commission of an address, or name change.
Voters were provided with a form and a postage-paid envelope to send back a confirmation or change of address to the election commission “Once they were sent the letter, their voting status was changed to inactive, meaning unless they return the form provided or make other kinds of contact with the election office before they wish to vote again, they
will have to fill out a ‘Fail-Safe’ form on election day,” Stanley said. “That will result in a delay at the polls and could even mean the voter will be sent to another voting precinct, depending on where they now live. It will be much more convenient for the voter to return the Address Confirmation letter mailed recently than to go through a possible inconvenience on election day,” he added.
Nearly 200 voters have taken the time to return the letters with either a confirmation or address change, Stanley said.
“The real concern is that over 600 (or about 25%) of the letters have been returned by the Post Office with insufficient addresses or with a notation the voter moved and either did not leave a forwarding address or the forwarding time has expired,” he continued. “All voters really need to let us know if they have moved and give us their current address or they could experience some delay and inconvenience when going to vote next year.”
If you think you have moved from the address used for your voter registration or changed the mailing address given to the election commission, please call us as soon as possible and we’ll check it out,” Stanley said.
The Election Commission office can be reached by calling 597-4146. You can mail them at P.O. Box 543 Smithville, TN 37166.