(ABC 6 News) – Friday marks another step closer to the Presidential Primary on Super Tuesday with the beginning of absentee in person direct balloting.

It works much like regular absentee voting. Voters still walk up to the counter check your registration and receive your ballot but once voters are done filling in the bubbles, they can feed in directly in the tabulator instead of an envelope.

“The direct balloting period helps us out with speed first of all. So, it cuts down the amount of time it takes us to process each ballot. It cuts down some of the cost with envelopes,” said Olmsted County election manager Luke Turner.

Right now, voters can on vote in person at the election office. But seven days before the elections, election officials will open up another location at Rochester City Hall.

There is still time to mail in vote just as long as the ballot get to the election office 8 p.m. on election day and of course you can always vote in person on Super Tuesday.

Minnesotans will cast their presidential primary ballots on March 5, playing their part in Super Tuesday.

In addition to the 39 Minnesota delegates up for grabs, another 835 delegates representing 14 states will be available for a presidential-hopeful.

So farm former President Donald Trump has gained 63 available delegates.

A strong showing on Super Tuesday could put him very close to achieving the 1,215 delegates necessary to secure the Republican nomination for the second time.

In Iowa, Democrats will reveal delegate numbers from their caucuses on Jan. 15.

Those results were not revealed right away to stay in line with the new Democratic National Convention’s primary calendar, granting “first in the nation” status to South Carolina.