Want your ballot counted on Tuesday? Then vote TODAY.

We are hearing from readers, worried that if they vote in person at Hannah Community Center today, their vote may not be counted tomorrow. Nothing could be further from the truth.

ELi has now triple-checked the facts on this:

• The City of East Lansing has three high-speed voting machines to count “absentee” (early vote) ballots.
• The machines will start counting the ballots at 7 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday, Election Day).
• These machines each count ballots at about 60 ballots per minute. It will take them at most a few short hours to count all the early-voting (“absentee”) ballots submitted. Your vote at Hannah today will absolutely be counted on Tuesday.
• The ballots for early voting (“absentee”) are exactly the same as the in-person ballots for Tuesday, except the early voting ballots are folded. That is the only difference.
• If it is important to you to stand at one of those little voting booths to fill out your ballot, good news: They have them at Hannah.
• If you’re worried about your signature being challenged, you can ask a clerk to walk you through that concern and resolve that at Hannah.
• You can get an “I voted sticker” at Hannah, just like on Tuesday.

Why should you not wait until Tuesday? There is talk of some people being interested in disturbing voters or the voting processes at polls on Tuesday. There is also a pandemic going on.

Voting today means avoiding any mischief and helping to reduced crowding.

You can vote at Hannah Community Center right now through 4 p.m. The parking is free. There are no lines.

You can also vote at the City Clerk’s office at City Hall until 4 p.m. today. There, the parking is more complicated, and there may be lines.