GREENSBORO, N.C. — The mail-in or absentee voting process isn’t complicated, but there are certain deadlines and instructions you need to follow.
Ellen left us a message saying:
The post office told me that mail put in a dropbox is not postmarked. The board of elections told me the ballot needs to be postmarked to be counted. If this is true, will votes be disqualified if they're not postmarked?
To verify what happens to your ballot in a post office collection box, I went straight to the United States Postal Service.
First and foremost, all first-class mail is postmarked when it is collected by carrier pick-up, collection boxes, retail counters, or lobby drop boxes.
In the USPS Election Mail section, there's a FAQ of “Should I drop my ballot in a USPS collection box”? The answer is yes. Along with a reminder to “Be sure to check collection times. Ballots deposited after the collection time won't be picked up or postmarked until the following business day”. Again, a confirmation of a postmark.
So we can verify, the Post Office postmarks ballots or other mail dropped in the USPS collection boxes.
All mail-in ballots have to be postmarked by election day to be qualified.
That's really where the postmark comes into play, especially if you wait until close to election day to mail your ballot back.
If you don't want to worry about when the mail runs and postmarks, you can drop off your ballot in-person:
You can always drop it off at your county's board of elections office. If you do it on election day, do it by 5 pm.
You can also drop off your ballot at any early voting site. Early voting starts on October 15.
When you drop off your ballot an election official will log who returned the ballot, the date and time, and the location of where the ballot was turned in.