VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – The Barnes County Commission voted to continue with Vote-By-Mail for all future elections, including the Primary Election on June 12th, 2018. The primary means of voting will continue to be by mail, and at only one polling location on Election Day for in-person voting.

Applications will be mailed out to all active voters in Barnes County. Persons who wish to vote may then complete and sign the application, and return it to the Barnes County Auditor’s Office. When the application is received in the Auditor’s Office, receipt of the application will be logged into the Central Voter File, and the appropriate ballot will be mailed to the voter. The voter may then vote their ballot in the privacy of their own home at their leisure. It’s essentially the same as absentee voting, only on a larger scale. Ballots must be either mailed back (must be post-marked by the day before the Election Day – in this case, June 11, 2018, in order to be counted), or they may be hand-delivered to the Auditor’s Office up until close of business on June 11th. If a voter misses those deadlines, they may still vote in person on Election Day at the Barnes County Courthouse.

The Central Voter File lists 5,870 people as “active voters”. An active voter is someone who has voted at least once in the last two election cycles (essentially, the last four years). The 2010 census figures show 8,786 people in Barnes County of voting age. Based on this, we would expect that there may be a number of Barnes County residents who are not in the Central Voter File who may wish to vote.

Anyone who does not receive an application may either request one from the Barnes County Auditor’s Office (701-845-8500), or download the application form from the North Dakota Secretary of State’s website. Here’s the link to the form: https://www.nd.gov/eforms/Doc/sfn51468.pdf

There will be one polling place open on Election Day from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm for those individuals who wish to vote in person on Election Day, or those who miss the mail-ballot return deadlines. If you miss the deadline and still want to vote, bring the mail ballot with you to the polls and turn it in to an election official. All Barnes County residents can vote in the June 12th primary/election and again in November 6th general election in the Barnes County Courthouse in Valley City.