Absentee voting up since 2004

With two weeks left for voters to cast absentee ballots in person, Beaufort County almost has matched the total number of absentee ballots cast in the last presidential election.

According to S.C. State Election Commission figures, nearly 9,000 voters in the countyhave either voted absentee or requested an application to do so. There were about 10,000 absentee ballots cast in the county during the last presidential election.

Betsy Mosteller, who runs the county voter registration office on Hilton Head

Island, said 270 to 280 voters are coming in each day at the town hall precinct, an uptick over the previous presidential contest.

Voting absentee in person is under way only at the Beaufort elections office and at Hilton Head Town Hall. Under state law, residents can vote absentee in person and by mail for numerous reasons.

For example, voters 65 and older, on active duty in the military, or on disability can vote before Election Day. Voting absentee is particularly popular in the county because of the high number of retirees in southern Beaufort County and the large number of military families near Beaufort.

Though Beaufort County ranks ninth in the state in terms of registered voters, it has the fourth-highest number of residents opting to vote absentee, according to a spokesman for the State Election Commission.

If there's a downside to the profusion of absentee voting, it's that long lines have become a problem at the Hilton Head precinct. Mosteller said lines were an issue most days at approximately 3 p.m.

The office puts away its voting machines at 4 p.m. To beat the crowd, she suggested residents vote in the morning.

The spike in absentee voting is at least partly due to intense interest in the presidential campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama.

But local political parties also have been doing their part to encourage residents to get out and vote before the Nov. 4 election.

"It certainly is smart to vote early simply because there's going to be long lines on Election Day," said Tom Hatfield, vice chairman of the Beaufort County

Republican Party.

Hatfield said he used the local GOP's e-mail list to let people know about

in-person absentee voting last week.

Local Democrats are just as eager to get Democrats to vote absentee.

"We are encouraging it, certainly," said David Rice, president of the Democratic Club of Beaufort County South of the Broad.