Voting now means avoiding the potential of long lines and hours-long waits to cast the ballot when Nov. 4, Election Day, rolls around.

The eight Arapahoe County early-voting sites will be open Oct. 20 in Aurora, Centennial, Englewood, Glendale and Littleton. All are open Mondays through Saturdays. The exact locations and hours are listed on www.arapahoevotes.com.

Early voting is the only way to go, according to Arapahoe County resident Stuart Black.

“The experience is just like going to the polls on Election Day,” he said. “The only difference is there usually is, at most, a couple minutes wait to vote. I tried it four years ago, I like it and I doubt I’ll every wait to vote until Election Day.”

Nancy Doty, Arapahoe County clerk and recorder, said she really has no idea how many people will cast ballots at early voting locations.

“Early voting has been popular in the past but we know many who voted early four years ago have applied for mail-in ballots,” Doty said. “However, we also know there has been a big push by the political parties to have residents vote ahead of Election Day either at an early-voting location or by mail-in ballot. We hope that will happen.”

The county clerk said her office is still busy entering newly registered voters but said all new registrations would be entered by the time early voting begins Oct. 20.

“We had a big push for voter registration this year and this registration process went much better that the process did four years ago,” Doty said.

“Four years ago, those hired to register voters were paid by the number of voters registered,” she said “The result is we received a lot of fraudulent registrations. The law changed in the past four years and those hired to register voters must be paid by the hour and the number of fraudlent registration dropped dramatically.”

Frequently, incorrect or incomplete registration forms are received. When that happens, the clerk’s office tries to contact the resident who filed the form to correct it so they can vote in November.

Doty did say there has been a huge increase in requests for mail-in ballots and as many as 65 percent of Arapahoe County voters could vote by mail this year.

The county sent out mail-in ballots Oct. 6. A registered voter who signed up for a mail-in ballot and hasn’t received one should either check the status of the request at www.arapahoevotes.com or call the elections office to have a ballot put in the mail.

Voters can request mail-in ballots until Oct. 28 but Doty reminded those applying for the mail-in ballot late that, to be counted, the ballots must be received in the county clerk’s office not later than 7 p.m. Nov. 4.

Each voter received a mail-in ballot listing only the races and issues in his or her particular area. The result is the county created almost 40 different ballot types. Since ballot sizes vary, the postage to return the ballot can vary from 59 cents to $1.07.

Voters can save the cost of postage by returning the ballots to one of the 13 drop-off locations that include the four Arapahoe County Clerk office location and the city clerks offices in Aurora, Centennial, Cherry Hills Village, Englewood, Glendale, Greenwood Village, Littleton and Sheridan.

The record turnout could delay the county’s effort to report results. However, it will help if residents voting by mail send their ballots in early.

“By law, we can begin processing the ballots through the counting machines 10 days before election days,” Doty said. “However, there is tight security so none of the data from those ballots is tallied until 7 p.m. on Election Day.”

For information about early voting, call the Arapahoe County Elections Office at 303-795-4511.

At a glance

— Early voting and mail-in ballot are ways to avoid long lines on Election Day.

— Eight early voting sites open Oct. 20.

— Mail-in ballots can be turned in at 13 county drop-offs.