Missouri Law Ensures Voting Access For Hospitalized Patients

Emergency hospital stays aren’t planned, but if someone finds themselves hospitalized around election time and unable to get to the polls, they can still cast a ballot. Missouri law ensures these individuals can still vote, whether they are hospitalized, confined due to an injury or illness, or confined in a residential care or skilled nursing facility.

Anyone hospitalized after 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, may request an emergency absentee ballot be brought to them for the Nov. 5 general election. As long as the hospitalized patient is registered to vote, they can request this ballot up until, and including, the day of the election.

Patients must be hospitalized or confined within their own election jurisdiction or an adjacent one in the same county to use this emergency ballot process. To request an absentee ballot and application be brought to their location, patients should contact their local election office.

If the election authority receives multiple applications for absentee ballots from the same address, a bipartisan team will deliver the ballots, witness the voting, and return the completed ballots and applications for the patients.

Hospital leaders should coordinate with their county clerks to ensure these voting protections for hospitalized patients are upheld.

Learn more about Missouri’s elections, and remember to vote Tuesday, Nov. 5!