*The Guilfordian does not endorse any political party or political candidate.

The 2020 election has officially already begun. In many states, voters are flocking to early voting sites in record numbers.

The term “unprecedented times” has possibly been used more over the past couple of months than ever before. Yet, in terms of elections, this year truly will be unprecedented.

Record numbers of voters plan to vote using absentee ballots due to concerns with COVID-19. President Trump has stated multiple times that he fears this will lead to election tampering.

This claim has been denied by many, who cite the record number of absentee ballots that were cast in 2018 without any evidence of fraud.

The Guilfordian encourages our community to take this time to do research, get involved and find a safe way to vote. A great resource is https://www.nass.org/can-I-vote.This website can give you information on where you can vote, candidates who will be on the ballot in November and how you can get an absentee ballot.

If you choose to go the absentee ballot route, make sure to read the instructions on the envelopes carefully. Even in the primaries this fall, over 500,000 mail-in ballots had to be rejected for inconsistencies.

Within Guilford County, this has been an even larger issue than in other counties. 8.9 percent of mail-in ballots returned in Guilford County were rejected.

As of Oct. 5, the statewide rejection rate was 1.6 percent (6,020) from 365,510 ballots returned so far. 1,641 ballots have been rejected from Guilford County. This means that Guilford County accounts for 27 percent of rejected ballots in North Carolina.

All of that is to say, when you go vote, make sure it counts.

Reflecting Guilford College’s core Quaker values, the topics and content of Staff Editorials are chosen through consensus of all editors and one faculty adviser of The Guilfordian’s Editorial Board.