Whether or not the mail runs on time has never been more important.

Tuesday was the last day the U.S. Postal Service would guarantee that a mailed ballot would arrive at election offices by Nov. 3. With 28 million absentee ballots still outstanding, that means the Postal Service has been entrusted to deliver a record number of mail-in ballots.

Fears are rampant that the post office will fall short. Delivery has not fully rebounded since the summer, when the coronavirus and new policies from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy , an appointee of President Donald Trump , created rippling delays in deliveries.

A single day can make a difference most states, including many swing states, wont count ballots that arrive after Election Day and voters know it. A recent HuffPost/YouGov poll found that about half of the people who plan to vote in person are doing so in part because they dont trust the mail . And there are widespread warnings that first -class mail service, which is how ballots are classified, is taking much longer compared with pre-pandemic days.

But new data suggests that in many parts of the country, the Postal Service is moving ballots faster than regular first-class mail.

This weekend, for the first time, the Postal Service released a limited snapshot of how fast ballots, not just all first-class mail, are reaching their destination. The picture is reassuring, if very broad and incomplete. During the week ending Oct. 10, the post office delivered 95.6% of voter ballots to election offices on time and 96.7% of blank ballots to voters on time, USPS data shows . That inbound delivery rate, of 95.6%, was the highest it has been all fall. For the weeks of Sept. 12 and 19, the on-time delivery rate for ballots was 86.6% and 91.9%, respectively.

A different tracker, Ballot Scout, has found that in early October, 95% of ballots were reaching election offices in one to five days, with an average delivery speed of two days. The remaining 5% of ballots were mostly mailed from out of state.

To be clear, ballots mailed later than Tuesday may arrive too late. Voters who havent mailed in their ballots yet should explore using ballot dropboxes in states that have set them up, delivering their ballots to voting centers or voting in person. Each state has its own set of options, so state and local voter information sites can be the best sources of information. Those who mailed their ballots should also check to see if they counted .

Overall, what this shows is ballots are not plagued by the same rolling delays dogging first-class mail. This reality could change at any moment. The data is not comprehensive, it doesnt reflect problems in specific regions and even a single percentage point dip in on-time service could translate to delays for tens of thousands of ballots. In 2016, the winner of Wisconsin was decided by roughly 22,000 votes.

But the limited data thats available suggests that if DeJoy intended to slow the mailed ballot process, he failed.

Even with our deep concern about the decline in service under Postmaster General DeJoys leadership and other factors, such as COVID, thats generally not affecting the question of mail ballots, said Mark Dimondstein, the president of the American Postal Workers Union, which represents mostly workers in processing plants. They are being given beyond first-class attention.

The same data set that showed 95.6% of ballots arriving on time showed most first-class mail had an overall on-time score percentage in the mid- to high 80s. In swing states such as Wisconsin and North Carolina, its taking first-class letters up to 10 days to be delivered.

Whats likely making the difference is that the post office and postal workers are taking multiple steps to separate out ballots from the general mail stream and expedite them. Starting Thursday and running through Election Day, letter carriers are being told to visit every address on their stop, whether or not they have mail to deliver, to ensure any ballots in residents mailboxes are picked up. Processing plant workers are supposed to make multiple daily sweeps to look for ballots that are just sitting around.