On Thursday, Michigan clerk offices must begin to send out absentee ballots to voters. However, some have already begun to do so.

One of the main concerns of this massive number of ballots getting ready to be mailed in has been the United States Postal Service and whether it could handle such an extreme number of ballots. Although, according to director of communications for the Michigan Department of State Jake Rollow, the concern isn’t necessarily with the post office, but rather when they can begin to access those ballots.

“The real lag time in processing is created by the fact that the legislature still hasn't allowed clerks to process (ballots) prior to election day,” Rollow said. “The best practice by the Bipartisan Policy Center recommends clerks have at least seven days before election day. We currently have none.”

As it stands, Michigan clerk’s offices are not allowed to open and count ballots until election day. Rollow recommends that to ensure your ballot gets cast on Nov. 3, send your ballot out in the mail by Oct. 19 or drop it off at your clerk’s office after that date.

“Our encouragement to voters is still going to be that they should get their ballots in the mail by Oct. 19,” Rollow said. “That's approximately two weeks out, it's also on the same day that voter registration switches over to being in person. We're just gonna stand by that and really push folks to act early. That's been our messaging around really everything. Request your ballot early. Vote early. Submit it early. That just prevents any possibility of a postal delay or postal jam-up that would cause problems.”

Absentee ballots and in-person voting Nov. 3 are not the only ways you can vote either, as early voting is set to begin Thursday and end election day. Times and dates may vary depending on where your clerk’s office is, but all 1500 Michigan clerk offices will be open Thursday for early voting, as well as multiple satellite locations.

Early and absentee voting has faced intense scrutiny, including from President Donald Trump who has claimed absentee ballots could lead to extensive voter fraud. The Michigan Department of State’s office sees it differently though.

“Certainly the President has expressed skepticism in the system, which is unfortunate because mail-in voting has been time tested over decades and proven to be secure time and time again,” Rollow said. "We would like everyone to just understand that we're running safe and secure elections that will have results that are accurate and are a true reflection of the will of the voters in Michigan.”

It’s not just the President that may try and cast doubt in the election results, but other countries with outside interests like Russia did in 2016.

“The second concern is the time lag in between when polls close and when unofficial results are available,” Rollow said. “That's the time that people, foreign or domestic, want to scrutinize and cast out the integrity of our elections that they can take advantage of.  They may use that time to say that things are not on the up-and-up during that period.”

The first concern for the election is to get the results out as quickly and efficiently as possible. With all of the ballots coming in at once, it may cause a lag in results though, and that’s when the real trouble can begin.

“Nothing could be further from the truth of course. When we have a time lag there it's because clerks are actually taking their time and being diligent to ensure that they have an accurate count of all the absentee ballots," Rollow said. "That's the concern, is that folks who either don't have the best interest of our democracy in mind or are concerned about the outcome of the election will take advantage of that time lag.”

Another key point of note for voters is that it is possible to change your vote prior to the election if you were to change your mind after sending your absentee ballot. Rollow noted that if a voter decided to change their mind, they could go to their clerk’s office and asked for the ballot to be changed, and receive a new ballot to cast a new vote as long as it was before election day.

The link to register to vote can be found here, and you must register online on or before Oct. 19; otherwise, the only place voters can register is in-person at your local clerk’s office.