If you are voting in the Nov. 3 election and have requested a mail-in ballot, you probably should have voted by now. Today is not too late, especially if you’re mailing your vote at a Post Office in the same county as your courthouse. It will be counted if the County Election Officer receives it by Friday, Nov. 6, assuming you filled out everything correctly.

But if you haven’t dropped that ballot in the mail yet, you’re taking a risk. What if you made a mistake and the ballot comes back for insufficient postage? What if it goes astray for more than a week in the U.S. Postal System? That is a rare event, but it does happen sometimes.

There’s also a chance you failed to sign the envelope in accordance with the instructions. If the ballot arrives early enough, that can be rectified. Timely competition is needed.

If you’ve received a mail-in ballot and haven’t returned it yet, your best bet is to bring it to the clerk’s office at the courthouse in person. Or, use an official drive-up ballot dropbox. In Barton County, one is located in the alley between Central Kansas Community Corrections and the Golden Belt Cinema 6 theater (between 12th Street and Lakin Avenue). The other is in the alley behind the Hoisington City Building, located at 109 E. First, next to the utility bill dropbox.

Ballots must be returned to the County Clerk’s office by 7 p.m. on Election Day or if returning by mail, the ballot must be postmarked by Election Day.

Any voter can go to Voterview at https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView or from the Barton County website at bartoncounty.org and the Current Elections link. Enter your name (typed exactly as it appears on your voter registration) and date of birth, to find out if you are registered and where to vote, and to see a sample of your ballot.

If you’re voting in person, early voting is available through the Barton County Clerk’s Office until noon on Monday, Nov. 2. That’s on the second floor of the courthouse. And, the office will be open this Saturday for advance voting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

If you’re voting in person on election day, the polling locations are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We’ve listed them before and will list them again in Sunday’s Great Bend Tribune. They are also on the Barton County website.

Former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg recently said, “You’re not going to want to look back on 2020 and say, ‘I was on the sidelines.’ ... Nothing changes unless you get out and vote.”

So vote, already. There’s no excuse not to.