By Bruce Karnick

The City of Hastings has served over 3,600 early voters in Hastings since the start of the early voting period. Deputy Clerk Erica Henderson gave the Journal a quick rundown of the Early / Absentee voting process. “It’s been fantastic, super busy.” Henderson starts with. What is the process of early voting? “They have to fill out an absentee ballot application, once we receive that, we will process it. We’ll give out their ballot, they will be able to vote, seal it in the envelop and they stick it in the box!” She explained. It is a relatively quick process too. Most people are out in 10 minutes. You could make the process even faster by bringing in your absentee ballot if you already received it at home. “We want people to understand,” Henderson continued, “that residents can bring in their completed ballots from home too.” She explained that some people feel more comfortable handing in their ballot rather than mailing them. Until 14 days prior to the election, the ballots are sorted by ward and stored. On Tuesday, October 20th, election officials will begin feeding the absentee ballots into the machine to start counting votes. No matter how you vote, in person, by mail, absentee, going to the polls, get out and be an educated voter.

Early Voting in Hastings has begun via the Absentee Ballot system. Voters can bring the absentee ballots they recevied at home to city hall or they can fill out the paperwork at city hall to get the ballot in person and complete it in the hallway. Once complete, place the ballot in the ballot box and your vote is cast! Photo by Bruce Karnick