How big an idiot am I?

Pretty big, apparently.

See, today is election day in the county where we reside. Since the whole county now operates on a vote-by-mail method (don't get me started on this... seriously, the ranting could go on for weeks), the county mails out a handy voters' pamphlet and its distinctive green-and-white ballots for each registered voter in the household a few weeks before the deadline. Registered voters may therefore drop off their votes at any time between the moment the ballots hit their mailboxes and 7:59 p.m. tonight.

So I perused the voters' pamphlet, made my decisions and marked my ballot. I sealed it up in the white security envelope, slipped it into the green-and-white outer envelope, signed and dated the outside. All good. I stayed up very late writing (as is my wont), and around 2 a.m. I decided that since I was awake anyway, I'd just drop off my ballot at the City Hall drop box and have one less thing to do in the morning. So I grabbed the green-and-white envelope off the sofa, hopped into the car, waited briefly in line (yes, I've discovered I live in a city partially populated by vampires) and slid the envelope into the drop box. And off I went on my merry way, thinking no harm.

A few minutes ago I reminded Captain Midnight that he still needed to vote, and he agreed that he'd do it when he got home. Thinking to make things easier for him, I turned to the couch to retrieve the pamphlet and his ballot -- and you're probably way ahead of me by now.

There, on the sofa, lay the completed ballot. Sealed in its green-and-white envelope, with my signature and the date on the back, all ready to be dropped off.

In my misguided urge for efficiency, I'd grabbed the wrong envelope. (In my defense, the envelope the county uses to mail ballots and the envelope used to seal completed ballots look very similar to each other, especially when it's very early in the morning and you're barely glancing at them.) So unless they've retrieved it, Captain Midnight's unopened, unmarked ballot is currently sitting in the drop box at City Hall.

I'm trying to determine what course of action Miss Manners would suggest under these circumstances. Should I call the cops and report my own accidental voter fraud, or is it proper for me to allow Captain Midnight the satisfaction of calling them to clap me in irons instead?

*facepalm*