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What you need to know to make sure your absentee, mail-in ballot gets counted

Indiana absentee, mail-in ballots must be received by the county election administrator's office by 6 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.
Indiana absentee, mail-in ballots must be received by the county election administrator's office by 6 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Indiana absentee, mail-in ballots must be received by county election administrators by 6 p.m. on Election Day. That means, if you still have yours, it’s too late to put it in the mail.

Indiana’s absentee, vote-by-mail ballot deadline doesn’t consider when that ballot was put in the mail or postmarked. The ballot only counts if the county election administrator receives it by 6 p.m. on Election Day.

But you don’t have to mail in that ballot. You or a family member can return the signed, sealed envelope with ballot inside to the county election board office by that Election Day deadline.

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

Join the conversation and sign up for the Indiana Two-Way. Text "Indiana" to 765-275-1120. Your comments and questions in response to our weekly text help us find the answers you need on statewide issues and the election, including our project  Civically, Indiana .

If you don’t know where that is, or can’t make it there, there is another option. If you have an absentee, mail-in ballot, you can go to your polling place on Election Day, surrender that ballot, and cast an in-person ballot instead.

Under Indiana law, family members allowed to return a voter’s absentee ballot are a:

  • spouse
  • parent
  • father-in-law
  • mother-in-law
  • child
  • son-in-law
  • daughter-in-law
  • grandparent
  • grandchild
  • brother
  • sister
  • brother-in-law
  • 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.