Tuesday is the last day to apply for a mail-in or civilian absentee ballot for next week’s midterm elections featuring a governor’s race, local races in the 8th and 9th Congressional Districts and numerous state House and Senate races across the region.

The Oct. 27 application deadline comes just over a week after the deadline to register to vote in the midterms passed, and exactly a week before Election Day, Nov. 3.

Because county elections departments must have completed mail-in ballot applications in-hand by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Lackawanna County Elections Director Beth Hopkins said the safest way for prospective voters to ensure access to a mail-in ballot is to apply online or in person at their county’s election office. Registered voters who miss Tuesday’s deadline for a mail-in ballot can still vote at their polling place on Election Day.

Voters can return their completed mail-in ballot — which county elections departments must receive by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 — by mail, by hand delivering it to their county’s election office or, in counties where they’re available, by depositing it in a secure ballot drop box.

Both Lackawanna and Luzerne counties deployed drop boxes for that purpose, and a comprehensive list of mail-in ballot return locations by county is available online via pa.gov/agencies/vote. Mail-in ballot application materials are also available via that website, via pavoterservices.pa.gov and via the websites for individual county elections departments.

Lackawanna County voters have access to six drop boxes, five of which will remain accessible this week until noon Friday. Those drop box sites and hours include:

Carbondale: Fallbrook Senior Community Center, 185 Fallbrook St., 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Clarks Summit: Borough Building, 304 S. State St., 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dickson City: Municipal Building, 901 Enterprise St., 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Moosic: Borough Building, 715 Main St., 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Roaring Brook Twp.: Municipal Building, 430 Blue Shutters Road, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Only the drop box located in the first-floor lobby of the Lackawanna County Government Center, 123 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, will remain available until the polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day. The government center drop box is accessible weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will be accessible Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.; the county’s elections office is located on the second floor of the government center.

Luzerne County has drop boxes available at Hazleton City Hall, the Penn Place Building lobby and the election bureau office in Penn Place, 20 N. Pennsylvania Ave., Wilkes-Barre.

The hours for the drop box in the Penn Place lobby are 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays except for Thursday, when it’s available from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., while the hours for the drop box inside the election bureau office on the second floor of Penn Place are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. Both Penn Place drop boxes will be accessible until 8 p.m. on Election Day, when the polls close.

The drop box at Hazleton City Hall, 40 N. Church St., is accessible weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will close at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2, the day before the election.

For those planning to vote in person, Election Day polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.