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Washington ballots have, or will be, delivered in the mail. Your voter pamphlet arrived a few weeks ago. It is time to vote in the general election. Election Day itself is Tuesday, Nov. 5.

But why wait until Election Day? Voting now helps ensure your vote is counted as a part of election night results.

Your ballot

Here are a few key details about your ballot. First, it has two sides, with contests involving federal, state and local candidates as well as four statewide initiatives. Be sure to place votes on both sides.

Second, use a black or blue pen. Do not use pencil or other kind of pen. Fill in the bubble for each vote choice as opposed to an X or other mark. Finally, be sure to tear off the stub at the top of the ballot that is there to ensure the ballot fits within the mailed ballot envelope you received.

Once you have completed filling out your ballot, you can place your ballot within the secrecy sleeve. The sleeve is purposely a bit smaller than the ballot so the election staff processing your ballot can easily remove it and prepare it for tabulation.

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Your signature

A critically important step is signing your ballot return envelope. The signature is compared with your voting registration signature as a part of the ballot processing effort.

What if you’re registered to vote but have no ballot?

Some voters have indicated they have not received their ballots. Check with your county voting registration office. Perhaps you recently moved and need to update your voter registration, or there is another reason why you have not received your ballot. Now is the time to follow up with your county elections office.

Need to register to vote

If you still need to register to vote, that can be done until Oct. 28. You can also register to vote in person at any county elections office up to and through Election Day, Nov. 5.

Returning Washington ballots

There are two options to return your ballot. The ballot mailing envelope inside your original mailing can be used to mail your ballot. No stamp is needed. Just simply place the envelope in the mail. Ensure that the envelope has your signature. It must be postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 5, so be sure to get it into the mail sooner than later.

The other option is dropping your ballot into a drop box. King County has 84 drop boxes located throughout the county. Snohomish County has 35 drop boxes, Pierce County has 51, Thurston County has 31, Kitsap County has 27, Mason County has a dozen, Jefferson County has 11, Skagit County has 13 and Island County has seven drop boxes.

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To learn where the drop boxes are specifically located, visit your local elections office website. The ballot boxes are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until 8 p.m. on Election night.

But why wait? For your vote to be counted in time for Election night results, it must be processed at the elections office prior to Election Day.

Election office processing

You can visit your local elections office and see how ballots are processed in person. There is, unfortunately, a lot of misinformation about how ballots are handled. Election office staff provides tours and explains how each ballot is processed and votes are tabulated in a safe and secure manner. See it for yourself!

For example, Snohomish County opened its new elections office at the County Administration Building in Downtown Everett earlier this year. Clear walls and TV monitors permit visitors to see each step in the ballot processing. Staff can provide answers to all your questions as you walk through the facility.

Here is a short rundown of how your ballot is processed. Your ballot arrives either via mail or from drop boxes, which are collected each day. The external envelopes are scanned, gathering the signatures for each voter and identified by a bar code singular to each registered voter and that voter alone.

The next step is signature verification. Washington State Patrol (WSP) trained staff compare the returned ballot signature with the voter registration signature. During your tour, you can literally see this comparison effort in person. Only a small fraction of less than 1% of all returned ballots have a signature that is rejected. Elections office staff then follow up with the voter. In many cases, signatures evolve over time as people age. A fresh voter registration usually clears up the issue.

After signature verification, the envelopes are gathered into batches — usually 200 in each batch. Seasonal election office staff then check out these batches of 200, like a library book, and extract the ballots from the envelopes, checking for any tears or other damage to ballots, lay them flat, making the ballots ready for the tabulation process.

Once done with each batch, the staff members check them back in again like a library book and check out the next batch, repeating the process for that batch and beyond.

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Most counties will have their seasonal election office staff start their work during the week of Oct. 28. Until then, ballot envelopes that have already arrived will go through the scanning and signature verification process, meaning there will be hundreds of batches ready for this team to process on day one.

The next step is moving the ballots through the tabulation machines. These machines tabulate the bubbles that voters have filled in. On Election night at 8 p.m., all those bubbles that have been tabulated leading up to that point will produce Election night results that are then posted on each county鈥檚 election office website not long after 8 p.m.

You can literally follow your ballot鈥檚 progress by visiting . The website shows when your ballot envelope arrived at your county elections office, and when it has been processed. County election office staff expect a high percentage of all mailed ballots to registered voters to be returned.

Your vote counts: Do it early

Your ballot is in hand. It is time to vote. It takes time for your ballot to be processed at your county elections office. Voting on Election Day means your ballot will go through the process and be counted a few days later. So, if you want your vote to be among those in Election Night results, vote early.

Ted Buehner is the 成人X站 Newsradio meteorologist. You can read more of Ted鈥檚 stories聽here聽and follow him on聽.