LA GRANDE — The first ballots for the November election have already been cast and counted.

A total of 522 Union County residents out of 19,116 eligible voters have sent in their ballots as of Tuesday, Oct. 25, according to the unofficial ballot returns comparison completed by the election division of the Oregon Secretary of State. This means that 2.7% of voters in the county have already voted, which is higher than the 2.2% average across the state.

So far in the county, 156 eligible registered Democrats and 277 eligible registered Republicans have voted in the midterm election. The rest of the returned ballots have been cast by registered Constitutional, Independent, Libertarian and nonaffiliated voters.

Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid postmark by 8 p.m. on Nov. 8. Voters can find the nearest ballot drop box using the Oregon Drop Box Locator (https://sos.oregon.gov/voting/Pages/drop-box-locator) and check the status of their ballots online at https://secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/showVoterSearch.do.