(a) Absentee voting is to be supervised and conducted by the proper official for the political division in which the election is held, in conjunction with the ballot commissioners appointed from each political party, as follows:

(1) For any election held throughout the county, within a political subdivision or territory other than a municipality, or within a municipality when the municipal election is conducted in conjunction with a county election, the clerk of the county commission; or

(2) The municipal recorder or other officer authorized by charter or ordinance provisions to conduct absentee voting, for any election held entirely within the municipality, or in the case of annexation elections, within the area affected. The terms "clerk" or "clerk of the county commission" or "official designated to supervise and conduct absentee voting" used elsewhere in this article means municipal recorder or other officer in the case of municipal elections.

(b) A person authorized and desiring to vote a mail-in absentee ballot in any primary, general or special election is to make application in writing in the proper form to the proper official as follows:

(1) The completed application is to be on a form prescribed by the Secretary of State and is to contain the name, date of birth and political affiliation of the voter, residence address within the county, the address to which the ballot is to be mailed, the authorized reason, if any, for which the absentee ballot is requested and, if the reason is illness or hospitalization, the name and telephone number of the attending physician, the signature of the voter to a declaration made under the penalties for false swearing as provided in section three, article nine of this chapter that the statements and declarations contained in the application are true, any additional information which the voter is required to supply, any affidavit which may be required and an indication as to whether it is an application for voting in person or by mail; or

(2) For any person authorized to vote an absentee ballot under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. §1973, et seq., the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act of 1986, the completed application may be on the federal postcard application for absentee ballot form issued under authority of that act, submitted by mail or electronically;

(3) For any person unable to obtain the official form for absentee balloting at a reasonable time before the deadline for an application for an absentee ballot by mail is to be received by the proper official, the completed application may be in a form set out by the voter, provided all information required to meet the provisions of this article is set forth and the application is signed by the voter requesting the ballot; or

(4) A person authorized to vote an absentee ballot who is participating in the Address Confidentiality Program as established by section one hundred three, article twenty-eight-a, chapter forty-eight of this code, may apply to the program manager within the office of the Secretary of State to vote a mail-in absentee ballot. The program manager will notify the designated county contact to coordinate the application and the provision of an absentee ballot to the program participant.