Absentee voting in SC is breaking records. Is the same true for Beaufort, Jasper counties?
As South Carolina continues to shatter absentee voting records in the final weeks before Election Day, both Beaufort and Jasper counties mirror that trend.
A fourth of Beaufort County’s registered voters — 25.36% — and a fifth of Jasper County’s — 21.43% — have already cast their ballot for the 2020 general election.
In South Carolina, “based on the current rate of by mail and in-person absentee voting, we are on course for approximately one million ballots to be cast before Election Day,” Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told The State newspaper. If South Carolina hits the 1 million mark, the paper reported, it would mean about 40% of votes will be cast in advance of the election, assuming typical turnout. By comparison, 23.7% of votes were cast early in the 2016 general election and 22.5% were cast early in the June primary.
In Beaufort County, 36,420 absentee ballots had been submitted as Thursday evening, according to data from the S.C. Election Commission.
It is unclear how many ballots were submitted by mail versus in person. The data does not provide that breakdown, and the local election board has not responded to multiple emails and calls for information about absentee ballots.
Beaufort County has 138,180 registered voters. More than 3,800 of those voters registered between July 1 and Sept. 30.
In the 2016 and 2018 elections, 22,210 and 18,011 absentee ballots were cast in Beaufort County, respectively. In the 2016 presidential election, Beaufort County had 113,271 registered voters, with 70.4% voting.
Jasper County already has seen more absentee ballots this election cycle than the last two general elections combined.
So far, Jasper County has counted 4,651 absentee ballots, Jasper County Election & Voters Registration director Jeanine M. Bostick said Thursday. Of those, 2,623 were cast in person and 2,028 were completed by mail, she said. No absentee ballots have been rejected in the county.
Jasper County had 2,838 and 1,192 absentee ballots in the 2016 and 2018 elections respectively, according to data from the S.C. Election Commission website.
Jasper County has 21,701 registered voters, and 487 of those registered between July 1 and Sept. 30, the commission website says. In the 2016 presidential election, Jasper had 17,906 registered voters, with 67.4% voting.
A bill South Carolina lawmakers approved last month due to COVID-19 allows for “no excuses” absentee voting, meaning all registered voters, no matter their reason, are allowed to cast an absentee ballot for the 2020 general election. But that law requires absentee ballots to be accompanied by a witness’ signature. Those without the signature are not counted.
During a live-streamed meeting Wednesday, Beaufort County election board director Marie Small said 275 absentee ballots had been disqualified due to not having witness and/or voter signatures.
This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 4:30 AM.
