Carbon County officials stress that absentee ballots do count in an election.

On Thursday, Commissioner William O’Gurek spoke about absentee ballots for the upcoming election and a misconception the county election bureau wants to address.

He said that so far the election bureau has received more than 700 absentee ballot requests for the upcoming November election.

But Lisa Dart has been hearing from a lot of applicants that they believe their ballot won’t matter unless there is a close race.

“Absentee ballots absolutely count,” O’Gurek said. “People are under the misconception that absentee ballots only count in close races but they will all be counted.”

O’Gurek also stressed the need for applicants to get their ballot requests in as soon as possible, as well as get their completed ballot back to the election bureau as quickly as they can.

Don’t wait until near the deadlines because the county cannot accept any application or ballot that comes in the mail after the deadlines.

He said he spoke with four people in Summit Hill whose ballots were mailed by the election bureau on Oct. 11 who still hadn’t received them as of Thursday.

“Anyone voting by absentee ballot, don’t wait,” he said.

People who will be out of the county on the day of the election can vote by absentee ballot. Those ballots can either be mailed back to the election bureau or the voter can hand deliver it to the election office at 76 Susquehanna St., Jim Thorpe during business hours.

The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is the Tuesday before the election, while the deadline to have absentee ballots accepted at the election bureau is Nov. 2.