Nearly a third of registered Vermont voters cast ballots in this year’s Nov. 5 general election, according to data released Monday by the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.

The office said 31% of the more than 450,000 ballots sent to registered voters in recent weeks were returned to city clerks by mail or in person.

This is a slight increase from 2022, when 27% of ballots were returned a week after the election. That year, nearly 60% of registered Vermont voters Ultimately the vote was cast.This was the state’s highest-turnout midterm election in decades. Nearly two-thirds of voters cast absentee ballots, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Two years ago, more than 44% of registered voters in the state returned their ballots in the week before the 2020 election, the first year that Vermont sent ballots to all voters in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall attendance that year exceeded 73%, a record for a presidential year. More than three-quarters of those who voted in 2020 voted absentee.

This year’s data shows that participation has varied by region so far. As of Monday, more than 32 percent of Chittenden, Washington and Grand Isle county registered voters had returned their ballots, while only 20 percent of Essex county voters had done so.

Perhaps contributing to this is that a small number of municipalities have unusually high rates of ballots marked “undeliverable,” meaning the postal service can’t find the registered Vermonter’s address. In the city of Newport, for example, 28 percent of ballots were marked as undeliverable. (Overall, fewer than 5% of ballots were marked as undeliverable or had other problems, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.)

Vermonters who have not yet mailed their ballot should consider dropping off their ballot instead.

The U.S. Postal Service said in a press release Monday that it is advising voters to return their ballots by the end of the day on Tuesday, Oct. 29, to ensure ballots are received by Election Day. In Vermont, ballots received after November 5 are not counted.

The postal service said it plans to take “extraordinary measures” to get ballots delivered by Election Day. It was stated that 99.89 percent of mailed votes nationwide in the 2020 general elections were delivered to election authorities within seven days.

Early voters can: They choose to drop off their ballots. to your town or city clerk’s office before Election Day, rather than mailing it. They can also choose to vote in person on November 5. at a local polling placeeither by bringing the ballot they received by mail or by requesting a new one at the ballot box. Vermonters who are not currently registered to vote or have recently moved can still register at polling places on Election Day.

You can find more details about how to vote and which candidates are running in your district at VTVDigger. 2024 General Election Guide.