YORK COUNTY, S.C. — We’re just one week away from the November 3rd General Election.
And it’s safe to say, voter registration offices across the Palmetto State are busier than ever preparing for the big day.
In York County, like anywhere else, voters continue to break records. In person voting up until now is more than 30,000 ballots cast, again that’s just in York County.
We also spoke with Voter Registration officials in Lancaster County where they’ve been busy from the start. They say they’re seeing about 1,400 people a day there come out to vote and they expect that number to increase closer to Election Day.
Mary Ann Hudson – the director of the elections office in Lancaster County – says whenever you choose to vote, it definitely counts. Whether mail in or in person absentee, Lancaster County has seen 20,000 votes so far. In South Carolina, absentee ballots get counted on Election Day at 7 p.m. once polls close.
The Sunday before, staff begins separating the envelopes. But each state has different laws on when absentee ballots can be counted.
“If you’ve not voted absentee, don’t worry about it. You’ll probably going to be able to get into your polling location at certain times of the day with no wait whatsoever,” Hudson said. “Now, that probably may not be first thing in the morning, but later on, I think, I think our lines are going to be manageable. Be patient. We’re working hard. Elections offices all over South Carolina, the staff are really working hard and we are trying to do the best we can, but you’re just going to have to know that when you have these numbers, that you’re just going to have to be patient and that you will be able to vote.”
In the story above, we share a picture from a voter in Fort Mill that shows a line of voters waiting to vote for nearly one hour and a half.
But whether in Fort Mill, Rock Hill or anywhere you’re going, depending on what day and time, some folks are in and out in 20 minutes.
If you expect lines to be even longer on Election Day, Hudson says she doesn’t believe that’s the case as they’ll have more stations staffed and people to help, but again if you want to vote early, COVID-19 is an approved excuse.
Anyone can vote early right now.
There’s also a bigger push this year to get folks to vote. Hudson says if everybody decided to vote on Election Day, it would be difficult to process, so that’s a major reason people are being encouraged to vote now
Again, the general election is a week from today, Tuesday, November 3rd.
