Absentee voting increasing in tri-county with Election Day less than 2 weeks away

Almost 1,000 voters dropped by Charleston County’s precinct at Leeds and Azalea avenues in North Charleston Wednesday to cast absentee votes, and election officials expect the pace will pick up until Nov. 6.

“We expect the numbers to keep going up by 100 or 200 every day,” Elections and Voter Registration Director Joe Debney said Wednesday.

Berkeley County also has seen an uptick in absentee voting this week, Berkeley Elections and Voter Registration Director Wanda Farley said.

And Dorchester opened its second absentee precinct this week in Summerville —in addition to its original one in St. George — to handle the expected surge in voting and to minimize any long waits.

South Carolina does not have early voting per se, but state law allows voters to cast their absentee ballots early if they are older than 65; are working on Election Day and will be unable to vote; plan to be out of town or in the hospital on Election Day; and for several other reasons.

Read more in tomorrow’s editions of The Post and Courier.