If you still have a mail-in ballot, best to use a drop box instead of the mail, officials say

If you have a mail-in ballot but you haven’t returned it yet, you may not want to put it in the mail, election officials said Monday.
Instead, you should use a secure drop box, listed on the state’s election website at VOTE.NJ.GOV, or you can hand-deliver it to your county board of elections, Secretary of State Tahesha Way said. .
“At this point in the election season, we recommend every voter planning to vote using a mail-in ballot return their completed ballot to a secure ballot dropbox in their county or directly to their County Board of Elections,” said Way, who also serves as the state’s lieutenant governor. “While New Jersey law allows mail-in ballots to be mailed until 8 p.m. on Election Day and received through Nov. 12 with proper postmark, we strongly urge any voters choosing to return their ballot through the mail to do so as early as possible.”
The postal service said in a statement Monday it anticipates “an uptick of ballots in the mail over the coming days.”
“But don’t delay. If you choose to vote by mail, please mail early as every day counts,” to said. “If a ballot is due on Election Day, the Postal Service recommends mailing the ballot by this Tuesday (October 29).”
Earlier this month, U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said the postal service would take extraordinary measures to “rescue” ballots to make sure they get to elections officers before state deadlines that are mailed late and at risk of missing state deadlines to be received by election offices.
All mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.
You cannot hand in a mail-on ballot at an early voting site, where voters can vote in person through Nov. 3.
New Jersey residents cast a record number of ballots during the first weekend of early voting. Nearly 250,000 people cast their votes on Saturday and Sunday. The state also received 599,905 mail-in ballots from voters, the state said. That’s more than 50% of all mail-in ballots that were sent out to voters who requested them.
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KPMueller.