Depends on the state. In some states they do have a near-real-time list of who requested mail-in ballots and who submitted them. If the mail-in vote hasn't arrived by then and you manage to cast a vote in person, your mail-in vote should be discarded when mail-ins are counted.
A large amount of states have this system rolled out to the public to, which is an amazing thing for people to be able to verify if their vote was counted and such. I think most states use the term ballot tracking, which is pretty much just allowing you to track your ballot in the states system to ensure that it was counted for voting.
Here's a list - https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-track-your-absentee-ballot-by-state
Problem is that I couldn't find a chart that I'd used before for this very purpose. I know a few states on here, like New York, allow absentee ballots to be tracked BUT ONLY for overseas voters.
Dumb to not have this system fully functioning everywhere.
But it would not surprise me if they skipped the science stuff.
It appears to be very scientific - sorted alphabetically.
Would probably make more sense to put the two top parties on top though, right?
Then again your decision on who to vote for shouldn't change based on where they are on the ballot.