Don't forget it's 'B Day' today in Yuma election

It's "B Day" in Yuma.

That's "Ballot Day," meaning today is when the Yuma County Recorder's Office needs to have early mail ballots in hand to get them counted in a timely fashion before Tuesday's Yuma general election to select the mayor and three city council seats.

A total of 10,055 mail-in ballots were requested by registered voters in the city and were mailed out early this month. Since then, voters have been making their selections and either mailing them back or returning them directly to the Recorder's Office.

As of mid-week, more than 5,000 of those early ballots had been turned in, according to County Recorder Robyn Stallworth Pouquette and will already be counted by Election Day so they do not slow the process on election night.

Because the mail ballots take longer to process, due to signatures having to be verified, if is important that they be in the election office by today so that voting results won't be delayed, as has happened in recent elections.

While the mail-in ballots are an increasingly significant part of local elections - often representing a large majority of those who actually cast ballots - the reality is that the number requested for this election represent less than one-third of the 36,000 registered voters.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that many of the remaining registered voters will choose not to vote even though they have the opportunity Tuesday. The elections department will staff 16 polling places all day, and it is likely most of them will be lonely places for much of the day.

Those people who request early ballots are more likely to vote, unlike most registered voters, and that is a good thing. But when they fail to turn in their "early" ballots early it short-circuits what could be a very efficient election process.

Today is the day to make sure that doesn't happen.