You need to move fast if you want to vote by mail in North Carolina

The official state deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 29, but in reality that is cutting it too close. All ballots must be returned by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day (Nov. 5) in order to count.

If you want to vote by mail, elections officials say, now is the time to request an absentee ballot.

If voters wait until the last minute, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections, warned on Monday, they may miss the state deadline to return the ballot, which means their vote would not be counted and their voice would not be heard.

Voting by mail is a popular, safe, and easy form of voting, but there are still a few steps to the process, and those steps take some time. And with the postal service warning of potential delays in the weeks before Election Day, it’s no time to dawdle, Bell said.

The official state deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 29, but in reality that is cutting it too close. All ballots must be returned by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day (Nov. 5) in order to count.

“Making that request on Oct. 29 is going to be really hard on election officials to get that processed, back to the voter and then for the voter to have sufficient time to return it,” Bell said in a virtual press conference on Monday.

Related: The do’s and don’ts of voting by mail in North Carolina

“We really need voters to think about that and plan their vote,” she said.

“Make that request now and return that as soon as possible.”

If voters do wait until the end of the deadline to request a ballot, they should not mail it back, but instead drop it off during the Early Voting period or at their county board of elections office, Bell said. 

Otherwise, Bell said, the postal service can’t ensure voters that their ballots will be returned in time to be counted.