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Vote-by-mail ballot must be turned in by 6 p.m. on Election Day

Tuesday  is Election Day in communities across Indiana. It’s also the deadline for people voting by mail to get their ballots submitted.

If you received an absentee, vote-by-mail ballot for this fall’s election, the deadline to return it to your county election administrator is 6 p.m. on Election Day.

That doesn’t mean putting it in the mail by that time — the ballot must physically be at the county election office by 6 p.m. on Election Day. Which means, if you haven’t mailed it by now, your best bet is delivering the absentee, vote-by-mail ballot in person.

READ MORE: These are the most common mistakes election boards see on mail-in ballot applications, at the polls

If you can’t physically bring the ballot into the election office, there are some people who can do it for you. Those include a bonded courier, your attorney or a member of your family — which is defined in law as a spouse, parent, father- or mother-in-law, child, son- or daughter-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, brother- or sister-in-law, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece.

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at  bsmith@ipbs.org  or follow him on Twitter at  @brandonjsmith5 .

Brandon J. Smith has previously worked as a reporter and anchor for KBIA Radio in Columbia, MO. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, IL as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.