ATLANTA — With the 2024 presidential election just seven days away, the U.S. Postal Service is telling voters with absentee ballots that Tuesday is the best “last day” to send your filled out ballot back to election offices.

“As we anticipate an uptick of ballots in the mail over the coming days, Postal Service employees are working to ensure the ballots of every individual who chooses to vote by mail are delivered quickly and securely,” according to a statement from the USPS.

In Georgia, completed and signed absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day. USPS officials are warning Americans not to delay getting their ballot back in the mail.

More specifically, the USPS said they recommend getting your ballot in the mail to be returned at least a week before it’s due, particularly if it’s due by Election Day.

For this year’s presidential election, that means Tuesday, Oct. 29 is the last day to send your ballot out and get it to your election office in time.

For this year’s election, USPS said they expect similar performance as in the 2020 general election, meaning:

• 99.89% of ballots mailed from voters to election officials were delivered within a week
• 97.9% of ballots mailed from voters to election officials were delivered within three days, and 99.7% were delivered within five days.
• On average, the Postal Service delivered ballots from election officials to voters in 2.1 days and ballots from voters to election officials in 1.6 days.

The federal service also said for this year’s election, the postal network is “operating effectively without any major reported disruptions,” adding that performance across the United States was strong and ballot mail performance scores were high in the first three weeks of October.

Just over a week earlier, the USPS said they’d implemented “extraordinary measures” to ensure mail-in ballots are delivered on time for boards of elections to accept them. including performing special pickups and extra deliveries, as well as special sorting plans at processing facilities.