Election Day to-do: check if your ballot was received and accepted

By Lorelei Yang, Countable News

If you're one of the 100 million Americans who've already returned a mail-in or absentee ballot, today's a good time to check that your ballot was received.

If it wasn't received or was rejected, you still have time to vote in-person or "cure" your ballot.

It's important to check your mail-in ballot status because only 19 states have processes requiring election officials to notify voters if problems occur with their ballots and offer an opportunity to fix them.

Therefore, in many places, it's on you to make sure that your ballot is counted.

Track your ballot

First, you'll need to track your ballot to check on its status. Here are the tracking links for mail-in ballots in the six major battleground states:

• Arizona
• Florida (ballot status lookup is by county)
• Michigan
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Wisconsin

If your state isn't one of the above, you should still be able to track your ballot online. In most jurisdictions, ballot trackers can be found on both Secretary of State and local elections board websites.

If you don't know your state's election website, you can search for it here.

What to do if your ballot wasn't received

Vote in person

If your ballot was received, your first - and best - option is to vote in person. Here's how to do it. Make sure you're in line by the time polls close! As long as you're in line before polls close, you're entitled to vote.

"Cure" your ballot

If your ballot was received, but rejected, you may have the option of "curing" your ballot. This is a process by which you correct the issue that led your ballot to be rejected. In this year's election, ballot curing is available in 18 states.

Good luck today, America is counting on you.

(Image Credit: iStockphoto.com / lakshmiprasad S)