Polls across Shelby County are open Tuesday, Nov. 3, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in a high-interest election dominated by the presidential race at the top of the ticket.

While much has been made of the strong turnout in early and absentee voting – 55.2% of the county’s voters cast their ballots through Oct. 27 – plenty of voters who have not cast their ballots remain on the local rolls.

Based on the 590,726 voters on the Oct. 1 monthly headcount of voters by the Shelby County Election Commission, the most recent report available, 264,691 remain eligible to vote in person Election Day. That takes into account 326,035 who voted during the 14-day early-voting period, including absentee ballots received by the election commission so far.

Here are the basics of Election Day and the voting process in Shelby County:

Absentee voting didn’t end with the last day of early voting last week. Election Day is the final day to cast your absentee ballot. The deadline is to have your mail-in ballot in the hands of the election commission by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

However, voters cannot hand-deliver absentee ballots at a polling place or to the election commission. Instead, until 3 p.m. Tuesday, absentee ballot can be taken to a drop-off box at the Bartlett Post Office, 2966 Elmore Park Road.

Inside the election process: how and where absentee, early voting ballots are counted

The ballot must have first-class postage. Getting your ballot – with postage – to the Bartlett Post Office by 3 p.m. Tuesday ensures it is in the hands of the election commission before the polls close at 7 p.m.

Anyone who has not received an absentee ballot or can’t make the Bartlett Post Office deadline – and doesn’t think their ballot will be delivered by 7 p.m. by mail or FedEx or a similar service – must show up at the assigned polling place to vote in person.

Voters will not vote on a touch screen machine, but instead with a paper ballot that is hand-marked. It is a provisional ballot. The process will take about 20 to 30 minutes, according to the election commission.

The ballot will be judged by a bipartisan counting board and counted later but before the election results are certified and become official.

Anyone who voted early at one of the 26 locations across the county between Oct. 14-29 cannot vote on Election Day. 

Regardless of how you vote, you are not technically voting for president and vice president. You are instead voting for electors, in effect delegates to the electoral college from each state. The electors aren’t listed on the ballot.

Votes are cast for a “ticket” of a presidential candidate and his or her vice presidential choice. The two cannot be separated to vote for a different presidential or vice presidential contender.

There are seven “independent” presidential tickets in addition to the Democratic and Republican tickets on the Tennessee ballot. Some of them represent other political parties but those parties are not named on the ballot.

Ballot Basics: Who are Memphis voters?

Every ballot in this election cycle has races for president and the U.S. Senate. Anyone who lives in five of the six suburban towns and cities in Shelby County also will see races for alderman or commissioner (in the case of Lakeland) as well as school board seats.

Those five towns and cities are Lakeland, Millington, Germantown, Collierville and Bartlett.

Arlington municipal elections are next year – the only scheduled election in the county in 2021.

Unlike early voting, those voting Tuesday cannot vote at any location. Everyone must vote at the precinct near where the voter lives.

Here are the identification requirements and what is needed by Tennessee law.

Here is where voters can find their Election Day voting place and familiarize themselves with those on the ballot. Put in your address and you will see a black dot where that address is. Click on it. The box next to it now shows an arrow at the top of the box. Click on that and you get the number and location of your Election Day polling place.

Voters also see a list of the different districts in which they live and the district races in which they may vote. Some of those district seats aren’t on this ballot or your ballot in particular. The ones particular to your ballot and this election cycle will list the candidates on the finder.

When voting, if you don’t see the right districts on your touch screen, stop and immediately call for an election worker. Do not go ahead and vote and then ask them about the problem.

The districts to pay attention to for this election are your Congressional District – it’s either 8 or 9 – as well as your state House District and your state Senate District.

About your state Senate District: Like the U.S. Senate, the Tennessee state Senate has staggered terms. Some seats are up in this election cycle while others are on the ballot in two years. If you live in state Senate districts 30 and 32, you have a race to vote in this year.

This gets a little more complicated but you won’t need the district or precinct finder for this.

If you live in state Senate District 30, there’s a race on the ballot but it’s a one-candidate race. Democratic incumbent Sara Kyle is seeking re-election and has no opposition, so she has effectively been re-elected.

If you live in state Senate District 32, you have a two-candidate race. The results in Shelby County alone will not decide this race since the district takes in parts of Shelby County as well as all of Tipton County, the next county north of Shelby County.

This may be another way to map things out if you want to go the paper way. Here is the Shelby County Election Commission’s sample ballot that lists all of the races and candidates. Find your district races from the online locator on the sample ballot. Print it out and, if you like, cross out the districts that don’t apply to you. Mark it up the way you want and take it with you to vote to keep your choices straight.

This is Shelby County’s second election with pandemic precautions at polling places. They include hand sanitizer and clear vinyl screens between voters and election workers and between voters and the voters on either side. There is also social distancing at the voting stations. And when you sign in to vote, keep the pen.

Voters will also get a stylus to use in selecting candidates on the touch screen voting machines, so there’s no direct contact with the screen. Everyone who works at your polling place will be wearing a mask and some may have spare masks if you forget yours. But you should plan on wearing your own mask.

About the stylus – those are standard election equipment even without a pandemic. If you have long fingernails, you might accidentally make contact with the touch screens and choose a candidate you don’t want in a race. The stylus can help with that too.

Finally, if you are in line to vote at 7 p.m. you must be allowed to vote.