Tuesday was the last day New Yorkers can request an absentee ballot online.
A crucial step for absentee ballot requests is that it needed to have a postmark dated Oct. 27 from the post office, so time is critical. Voters needed to put it in a mailbox before the last pickup or take it to a post office by the end of the day.
The Voter Registration Guidelines for New York had a warning about Tuesday's date. The website says, "Please be warned that despite this deadline, the Post Office has advised they cannot guarantee timely delivery of ballots applied for less than 15 days before an election."
The ballot could be requested via email, fax or even by phone. Nassau and Suffolk election officials staffed their phones for absentee requests, but have since closed up shop. Online requests could be submitted up until midnight.
Republican Commissioner of the Suffolk Board of Elections Nick LaLota says while he can't speak for the post office, his best advice if you do plan to request an absentee ballot online is that you'll need to get the application in as soon as possible.
"The board, when it receives that request, hopefully just a couple of days later, we will immediately within 24 hours send out a ballot to that voter," says LaLota. "But as you can imagine, when mail takes two or three days, at least traditionally, each step of the way, you're cutting it close to having it postmarked or delivered, postmarked by Election Day or delivered to the board and any of its polling places on Election Day as well."
If you did not get an absentee ballot request in Tuesday, another opportunity available is applying for an in-person ballot by the Nov. 2 deadline.