Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. Between this morning and the close of polls, a Detroit voter has three ways to cast a ballot — early in person, absentee, or at the polls on Tuesday — and each one has a clock on it. Here is the week, in the order the deadlines fall.

The first clock runs out today

Applying for an absentee ballot online or by mail closes today, Friday, at 5 p.m. That is the first deadline of the week, and it falls hours after this edition lands. If you want a ballot mailed to you, the application has to be in by five. Miss it and absentee is still possible — in person, at the clerk's office, until 4 p.m. Monday — but the mailed route ends today.

If your absentee ballot is already filled in, treat it the same way: done deliberating, time to move it. Ballots must be received by your clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and a postmark does not count. This close to Tuesday, carry it — to the clerk's office, to a drop box, to an early voting site, or to your polling place on the day.

Early voting runs through Sunday

Detroit's early voting sites are open today, Saturday, and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — eight of them, and any Detroit voter can use any site: Wayne County Community College's Northwest and Eastern campuses, the Northwest Activities Center, the Farwell and Adams Butzel recreation centers, Clark Park, the Department of Elections on West Grand Boulevard, and the City Clerk's office downtown. Two of the eight — the Department of Elections and the Clerk's office — are also open Monday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Early voting is the same ballot, cast the same way, on a quieter day. Nothing about it is provisional.

Not registered? It is not too late

The online and mail registration deadline passed on October 19. Registration itself did not end. You can still register in person at the clerk's office — in Detroit, the Department of Elections at 2978 West Grand Boulevard or the City Clerk's office at 2 Woodward Avenue — with a document that proves where you live, and you can do it through 8 p.m. on Election Day itself. Register, then vote there or at your polling place. Bring photo ID if you have it; if you don't, you can sign an affidavit at the voting site and cast your ballot.

What is on the ballot

At the top: Governor of Michigan and a United States Senate seat. Then your member of Congress, the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General. Two seats on the Michigan Supreme Court. The boards that run the State Board of Education, the University of Michigan, Michigan State, and Wayne State. And four questions: two statewide — whether to call a constitutional convention, and a campaign-finance initiative concerning utilities and government contractors — and two regional millages, for a Southeast Michigan historical museum authority and the renewal of the Detroit Zoo's millage.

The Academy's position on all of it is the guide's position: no endorsements, no picks. What follows is the homework, not the answers.

Do the homework before the booth

The Detroit Voter Guide — the Academy's own, at detroitautomationacademy.com/voter-guide.html — carries the full ballot: every race and every question, every certified candidate in the same format, claims tied to their sources, and gaps flagged instead of filled. Mark your choices in its checklist as you research; the list saves on your device, and you can print it and carry it into the booth as a reference. The guide also plans the trip to every early vote center, on the same live map our readers already use for the bus.

Two verifications belong to the state, and the guide says so itself: confirm your registration, your polling place, and your sample ballot at the Michigan Voter Information Center, Michigan.gov/Vote. Polls on Tuesday are open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and if you are in line at eight, you vote.

The close

Three ways to vote, five days to do it in, and every deadline in this edition is the government's own. Detroit votes this week. The Signal publishes on Fridays.

Canonical record: detroitautomationacademy.com/signal/

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