The general election is now less than two weeks away, and this Friday is an important deadline for those who want to vote absentee.

To be counted, absentee ballots sent from within the United States must be received by local clerks no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5.

The Board of Elections was using a printer in Akron and realized late last week it was going to be short 11,300 absentee ballots.

General Election absentee ballots returned by mail must be received by the voter’s local clerk by 5 p.m. on election day.

That's a 51% return rate of the 2,268,186 absentee ballots requested, as of Tuesday. As of Oct. 15, 672,585 voters had returned an absentee ballot. That represented a return rate of around 31%,