However, as regards early voting.

Just had the car radio tuned to NPR radio network.
The news anchor made the statement
that as of this date/time, this election year,
with the polls yet to open for the official Election Day voting,

thirty-five million people have already voted [early].

Now,as I understand it, all those voters -- as I did, this year --
put their completed ballot into an envelope, which they sealed themselves,
and then signed and wrote out their names on the envelope.

I presume that these sealed ballots remained sealed before Election Day.