Stearns County Officials Urge Voters to Deliver Absentee Ballots in Person Ahead of Election Day

(KNSI) – Officials advise anyone voting by absentee to avoid mailing it in.

With the election less than a week away, Stearns County Auditor/Treasurer Randy Schreifels told KNSI News, “We probably recommend you come in person at this point. I don’t know what the post office situation is, but I would hate to have somebody mail their [ballot] and it doesn’t make it in by Tuesday. And it has to be received by Tuesday. So if it comes in next Wednesday, it doesn’t get counted.”

Absentee ballots can be brought to the Stearns County Service Center in Waite Park, Lake George Municipal Complex or placed in any of the county’s drop boxes by 8:00 p.m. on Election Day. County Elections Supervisor Roxanne Gerads explained for someone trying to deliver an absentee ballot for someone else, there are different rules. “If you decide to drop off somebody else’s ballot, you need to come up to the second floor of the service center. And then you’ll need to bring your ID with you. You can drop off up to three people’s ballots, but we do record those in the system.”

Those dropping off someone else’s ballot must do so by 4:30 on Monday afternoon. The same rules and recommendations apply to anyone living in the county’s 21 mail-in-only precincts.

More than 18,000 absentee ballots have been cast in Stearns County so far. The general election is Tuesday, November 5th.

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