Ohioans should watch their mailboxes this week, as almost every registered voter in the state will receive an absentee ballot application for the November election.

More than 6 million regular business-size envelopes, labeled as “official election mail,” are expected to begin arriving Tuesday, although a small number of voters could have received them Saturday, according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.

The $1.4 million project is aimed at easing Election Day lines. It has been done by individual counties before, but never statewide.

To use the application, voters will have to provide their date of birth, driver’s license number or partial social security number, and their signature. A return envelope will be included, to send the application to a county board of election office.

Voters who send in the application will receive their actual ballot in the mail once the early-voting period begins Oct. 2. After voting on the official ballot, they can mail it back or return it by hand to their county board of elections.

Maggie Ostrowski, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s office, said anyone who sends in an application for an absentee ballot, but then shows up to vote in person on Election Day, will have to vote by provisional ballot. Board of Elections officials will then check those provisionals to ensure no one votes by both methods.

Ohio residents who registered to vote in the past four weeks will not receive a ballot application until a second wave of mailings in early October.

Voters may also request an absentee ballot online from the Ohio Secretary of State's website.