Absentee Voting

Registered voters may cast a vote using an absentee ballot only if they are unable to appear in person to vote at their polling place on the day of an Election, Primary, or Referendum for one of the following reasons:

  • You are in active service in the Armed Forces of the United States
  • You are absent from town 
  • Sickness
  • Religious tenets forbid secular activity on the day of the election, primary or referendum
  • Your required performance of duties as a primary, referendum, or election official at a polling place other than your own during all the hours on election day
  • You are physically disabled

Warning: Voting by absentee ballot if you are not eligible to do so for one of the six reasons listed above can subject you to civil and criminal penalties.

Absentee Ballot Process

Connecticut law allows you to receive an absentee ballot if you cannot appear at your assigned polling place on election day because of active service in the Military, absence from the town, sickness, religious tenets forbid secular activity on the day of the election, duties as an election official at a polling place other than your own during all of the hours of voting, or physical disability. To receive your absentee ballot please complete and sign an application and return it to your Town Clerk.

Absentee Ballot Applications (in English or Spanish) can be obtained in the Bloomfield Town Clerk's Office, or from the Secretary of State's website, where the forms are available as well. The completed application must be returned to the Town Clerk's Office either by mail, in person, or the ballot box located on the Park Avenue side of Town Hall. The law allows for assistance in filling out your application provided that person completes the "Declaration of Person Providing Assistance" sections located at the bottom of the application. Once the application is fully completed, dated, and signed submit it in person, by mail, or the ballot box to:

Town Clerk
Bloomfield Town Hall
800 Bloomfield Avenue
Bloomfield, CT 06002

See specific rules regarding Unsolicited Absentee Ballot Applications (PDF).

You may hand-deliver your completed application and receive your ballot immediately from the Town Clerk. If your application is submitted by mail, your ballot will be mailed within 24 hours.

Ballots must be returned to the Town Clerk's Office via in person, by mail or ballot box no later than the closing of the polls (8 pm) on the day of the election.

Permanent Absentee Ballots

Voters who are disabled are eligible to apply for permanent absentee ballot status through the Town Clerk's office.

To apply for a permanent absentee ballot, the voter must submit a standard absentee ballot application, together with a physician's certificate, preferably on letterhead, stating that he or she has a disability and is unable to appear in person at the polls.

Once the Town Clerk's office receives the absentee ballot application and medical note, we will forward the application to the Registrars, who will indicate the permanent status on the voter's record in the central voter registration system. At that point, the voter will receive absentee ballots for each election, primary, or referendum for which they are eligible to vote.

Each year in January, the Registrars of Voters will send a form requesting that the holder of a permanent absentee ballot verify his or her residential address. A voter who does not return this form will lose his or her permanent absentee ballot status.