WILKES-BARRE -- The general election in November is just two weeks away, and in Luzerne County, the elections office is still sending out absentee ballots.
That's led to concern that some votes might not be returned in time to be counted.
In some election offices in our area, like Lackawanna and Schuylkill Counties, absentee ballots are up to date. Most of them sent out earlier this month.
But in Luzerne County, the elections office just sent out some of the absentee ballots last week, and they're still plenty more to go out.
Luzerne County's election director admits that this year her office is a little behind on sending out absentee ballots.
"We have over 4,700 mailed out so far, and we're still processing them," said Luzerne County director of elections Marisa Crispell.
Officials said it took longer to print the ballots after a few candidates' campaigns were contested.
"We were waiting on a three pending court decisions," Crispell said.
As of Monday morning, the office counted about 100 absentee ballots it received out of the more than 4,000 it sent out.
Compare that to Schuylkill County, which has almost half of the 2,600 ballots it sent out.
Still, voters can always come by the office to fill out an absentee ballot if they prefer to. That's what Dawn Steadele did.
"I found out through my friend I could come here and do the absentee," Steadele said.
"We'll make sure any absentee ballot that was received will get out in time," Crispell assured.
If you mail in your absentee ballot, officials suggest you tell the post office it's an absentee ballot, because it will go in a separate pile. Or, if you want to drop it off to the election's office yourself, you can do so until November 4 at 5 p.m.