Monmouth County leaders say now is the time to return your mail-in ballot, and doing so in person is the best way.

More than 200,000 ballots have already been mailed out and returned out of the 470,000 which were mailed to voters.

Completed ballots should be placed in drop boxes located throughout the county or hand-delivered to the Board of Elections office in Freehold. That will ensure that they will be counted on time.

"So many people might be thinking 'oh, I had that ballot on my kitchen table. I going to get to it.' The earlier they're returned, the earlier we will have election results," says Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon.

Election ballots will be collected at drop boxes through election night at 8 p.m.

Counting will begin this Saturday with ballots already received, but results will not be released until polls officially close.