Haven't mailed your NC ballot yet? You may need to vote a different way. Here are options

North Carolina voters who got a mail-in ballot but have been waiting to send it back in have run out of time to mail it, the state's top elections official said Friday.

But it's not too late to submit it or find another way to vote, said Karen Brinson Bell, the state's elections director. She said people who haven't yet mailed in those ballots have options.

A new state law has eliminated the grace period that used to allow mail-in ballots to arrive up to three days after the election and still be counted. Now, any ballot not in the hands of elections officials by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day — this coming Tuesday — will be thrown in the trash.

People who haven't mailed their mail-in ballots can still hand deliver them or go vote in person.

In the primary election this March, officials were forced to throw out more than 1,100 people's ballots because the mail delivered them after the election.

The Republican state lawmakers who eliminated the grace period said doing so was necessary to improve voters' faith in elections. Democrats said it was just a ploy to disenfranchise people who vote by mail, since Democrats vote by mail more than Republicans.

Regardless of the intent, the new rules are now law. And with the mail sometimes taking several days to be delivered, Brinson Bell said people who do vote by mail will run the risk of not having their votes counted if they wait too long.

At this late point in the election, she said in an interview, "the mail may not be your best option."

What if you haven't mailed it yet?

Requesting a mail-in ballot doesn't require people to vote by mail. They can always go vote in person, which is the best way of ensuring a vote will be counted, since mail can be lost or delivered too late.

"If a person requested an absentee by mail ballot, and they've chosen that that's not the voting method that they want to do, they can go vote in person," Brinson Bell said.

Early voting sites will be open Friday and Saturday, and Election Day is Tuesday.

People who already filled out their mail-in ballot but who haven't put it in the mail yet and don't want to go through the effort again, or don't have the time or ability to go vote in person, also have other options.

Hand-delivering your ballot

North Carolina doesn't have ballot drop boxes, like some other states do. But people can deliver their mail-in ballot by hand to local elections officials, to ensure it gets where it needs to go and on time.

Mail-in ballots can be delivered to polling places during early voting. On Election Day itself, however, ballots may not be delivered directly to a polling place. Instead, they have to be delivered to the county board of elections office.

If you do want to deliver your ballot, don't ask a friend or a neighbor to drop it off for you. Only the voter, the voter's legal guardian or a close relative is allowed to hand-deliver mail-in ballots.

What if you already mailed it?

People who already mailed their ballot but want to check if it's been counted can use the state's BallotTrax app to follow their ballot and monitor its status. They can also call their county board of elections office to ask for an update.

Anyone who has already mailed their ballot but isn't confident it'll arrive in time can also call their county elections office to ask for that ballot to be canceled so that they can go vote in person instead.

Brinson Bell also noted that people who put a ballot in the mail, but also go vote in person, will be turned away if their mail-in ballot has already been received and counted when they show up at the polls. Likewise, if a mail-in ballot arrives from someone who already voted in person, officials won't process the mail-in ballot.

"There will not be a double-counting of ballots," she said.