AUSTIN, Texas — Austin’s General Mail Facility will offer a drive-up opportunity for voters to hand their ballot to a USPS employee in the parking lot on Election Day.
According to a release from USPS, the mail center, located at 8225 Cross Park Drive in northeast Austin, will extend its retail hours on Nov. 3 and be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Additionally, those voting my mail will be able to drop their ballots from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 3.
As voters drive by, they can hand their ballot to employees on-site, the USPS said. Employees will stamp the ballot and then send it on to be sorted and prepared for the applicable election board. All USPS employees will be following social distancing guidelines and wearing face coverings.
The Postal Service said it has processed and delivered more than 122 million ballots since Sept. 4, including both blank ballots delivered from election officials to voters and completed ballots from voters to election officials.
On Thursday, Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir urged voters to get their mail-in ballots in on time. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 3, and received by Nov. 4.
Voters can also drop off their ballots at the Travis County Elections Division, located at 5501 Airport Blvd.
You can hand-deliver your mail ballot every day between now and Election Day. The Airport Boulevard location is open on the following days and times:
- Friday through Saturday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Sunday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- Monday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Tuesday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
"If you have a by-mail ballot and you have not yet put it in the Postal Service, you may very well think about … don't do that. It's too late," DeBeauvoir told KVUE. "Bring it to hand-delivery. That's the fastest, easiest way to make sure that it's going to count."
Once the polls close on Nov. 3, KVUE will keep track of the 2020 election results here. Mail-in ballots that are postmarked before Nov. 3 can be received by local elections offices by 5 p.m. the day after Election Day, so mail-in ballots in Texas are expected to take longer to tally.
Be sure to download KVUE's app to get updates as they come in: kvue.com/app. On the KVUE app, you can customize the type of content you would like to be notified about and see the most, including election and voting information. Find out how to customize KVUE's app here.
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