Thursday is the last day to apply for an absentee ballot.

So if you have decided that in-person absentee voting is your best option, it’s time to bite the bullet and go line up at the courthouse. Read more.

Getting ready to vote? Find the information you need to make your decisions in the 2020 BirminghamWatch Voter Guide.

Up to 2,600 absentee ballots could be thrown out because of dueling court rulings over witness signatures on ballots. Jefferson County Probate Judge James Naftel on Wednesday said officials are working to see that every vote counts. Read more.

There has been confusion and concern among some voters in Jefferson County over whether their absentee ballots would be counted in the November election.

Earlier this month, an unknown number of county residents cast their absentee ballots using a waiver that Jefferson County sent them saying they did not have to have witnesses or a notary sign their absentee ballots. The waivers were sent out after U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon ruled that those requirements could be waived this year for voters who were 65 and older with an underlying medical condition, an action taken to avoid putting them at greater risk during the pandemic.

But two weeks later, on Oct. 13, a higher court overruled Kallon and reinstated the witness requirement.

County officials said in a statement Monday that ballots postmarked on or before Oct. 13 will be counted. But residents who returned ballots with the waiver postmarked after that date were instructed to call the county’s absentee election manager, who is working on a plan to correct deficiencies in the votes. Read more.