With the November general election less than five weeks away, the St. Louis County Board of Elections is reminding registered voters of St. Louis County of the need to understand the options for voting in the general election and the important dates and deadlines that apply to the election.

The deadline for registering to vote in the county is Oct. 7.
There are four options for voting in St. Louis County, including two possible vote-by-mail options: mail-in voting and absentee voting. For full instructions on how to vote by mail or vote absentee, see The Call’s Mail-In Voting Guide.

The first and newest option for voting, approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, is mail-in voting. Any voter can vote using a mail-in ballot without giving a reason. A mail-in ballot must be requested in person or via mail. All mail-in ballots require notarization and must be returned via the United States Postal Service.

The second option is absentee voting. For a voter to be eligible to vote absentee, they must meet one of the seven reasons for doing so:
1. Absent from St. Louis County on Election Day;
2. Incapacitated or confined due to sickness or disability, including caring for a person who is incapacitated or confined
due to sickness or disability;
3. Restricted by religious belief or practice;
4. Employed by an election authority;
5. Incarcerated, although all necessary qualifications for voting have been retained;
6. A participant in the Missouri Safe at Home program;
7. Has contracted coronavirus or is at-risk due to any of the following: is age 65 or older, lives in a long-term care facility, has chronic lung disease/asthma, has a serious heart condition, is immunocompromised, has diabetes, has chronic kidney disease and are undergoing dialysis or has liver disease.
An absentee ballot must be requested in person or via mail, email or fax by Oct. 21. Absentee ballots may be returned in person or via the United States Postal Service. If a voter chooses to return the absentee ballot in person, they can return it to the Board of Elections or one of the four satellite sites in the county.
The third option is absentee in-person voting. This can be done at the election board’s office in St. Ann from now until Election Day.
The Board of Elections (BOE) is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday now through Nov. 1. In addition, the BOE is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 and Oct. 31. The four satellite sites will open on Oct. 22 and will operate from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday until Nov. 1. The satellite sites will also be open during the same Saturday hours in October that the BOE will be open.

On Nov. 2, the BOE and the satellite sites will remain open until 5 p.m.

Satellite sites will operate at the following locations:

South County Government Center – 4544 Lemay Ferry Road, St Louis, MO 63129
St. Louis County Library – 7821 Maryland Avenue, Clayton, MO 63105
North County Recreation Complex – 2577 Redman Road, St. Louis, MO 63136
West County Government Center – 82 Clarkson Wilson Centre, Chesterfield, MO 63017

The fourth option is in person at a poll Nov. 3. Voters in St. Louis County can vote at any polling location in the county between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.
For more information, visit www.stlouiscovotes.com or call 314-615-1800.