Around a fifth of the local electorate have already voted for the next cohort of councillors to govern the Western Isles for the coming five years.
Some 21% of islanders are voting by post with ballot packs having to be mailed by yesterday to ensure they arrive in time.
Some 4,582 people out a total number of 21,811 voters applied for a postal ballot.
Postal voters who missed the mailman can still hand their packs in to a polling station by 10pm tonight.
Meanwhile, 13 ballot boxes will not make it to Stornoway until Friday due to the islands’ geography and will be locked up in a secure location.
After voting closes, the two boxes from Barra will be sped across the Sound of Barra to Eriskay.
There, they will be loaded into a van and, collecting South Uist boxes on route, driven northward to a central gathering point.
Boxes from Benbecula, North Uist and Berneray will add to their numbers to be secured
overnight until the first ferry leaves for Leverburgh in Harris early tomorrow (Friday).
Fifth of Western Isles already voted in council election
4 May 2017