The U.S. Postal Service is recommending Hoosiers planning to vote by mail this year to send their completed ballot in immediately so it arrives by Election Day.
Indiana law requires all mail-in absentee ballots be received by the voter's county elections office before the polls close at 6 p.m. Nov. 5.
Ballots received after the polls close typically will not be counted — even if the ballot was postmarked prior to, or on, Election Day.
According to the postal service, its employees are working to ensure every ballot sent by mail is delivered quickly and securely.
That includes extra collections and deliveries of election mail, specialized sorting at postal service processing facilities to expedite the movement of ballot envelopes, and local handling and transportation of ballots to county elections offices.
So far this month, 99.9% of election mail reached its destination within one week. Nationwide, ballots returned by voters to election officials were delivered in 1 day, on average, with 98.3% of returned ballots received within three days, according to the postal service.
The deadline for eligible Indiana voters to request a mail-in absentee ballot was Oct. 24.
By law, all returned mail-in ballots must include either the voter's driver's license or state identification number, voter ID number, the last four digits of the voter's Social Security number, or a photocopy of the voter's compliant photo ID.
Completed mail-in ballots may also be returned in-person by the voter, a member of the voter's household, an immediate family member, the voter's attorney, or a bonded courier by handing the sealed ballot envelope directly to an election official at the voter's county elections office or an early voting site.
Indiana generally does not permit counties to use ballot drop-boxes to receive completed mail-in ballots, except for drop-boxes located inside the county elections office.
Individuals who requested and never received a mail-in ballot, or did not complete their mail-in ballot in time to send it in, still can go their polling place on Election Day and vote in-person after surrendering their uncompleted mail-in ballot or filing the required affidavit.
Any voter who has problems on Election Day that can't be resolved by poll workers should complete a provisional ballot before leaving the voting site and promptly contact their county elections office after Election Day to make sure their vote is counted.
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