As early voting eclipses 1 million, 9 out of 10 have cast their ballots in person so far this election year.

South Carolina received about 84,000 absentee ballots by mail as of Wednesday, six days before the 7 p.m. deadline on election night. Nearly 33,000 mail-in absentee ballots have yet to be returned.

John Michael Catalano, a spokesman for the South Carolina Board of Elections, said absentee totals for this year will not reach the levels seen in the last two presidential elections. Only approximately 117,000 ballots were issued for these elections. The deadline to request an absentee ballot was Oct. 25, he wrote in an email.

In 2016, 147,000 absentee ballots were returned and 441,000 in 2020, when no excuse was required.

Catalano said ballots must be returned to the county elections office by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Postmarked mail-in ballots do not apply There are some exceptions, such as for those in the military serving overseas, but 99.99% of absentee ballots must be received by 7:00 p.m. in election day.

As of October 29, 988,950 people had voted early in person in South Carolina.

In mid-October, election officials raised concerns about the absentee ballot process at the commission’s monthly meeting.

“I don’t want to sow distrust, but I wouldn’t vote absentee,” Howard Knapp, executive director of the South Carolina Board of Elections, told his state board Oct. 17.

The state has had problems with the post office for the past two years, Knapp said. Mail coming into South Carolina that used to go through North Augusta now goes through Atlanta, which has caused a bit of concern, he added.

Mail gets lost, Knapp said, and it’s a problem the elections office has no control over.

Knapp said he would estimate that a quarter of the total percentage of people who receive absentee ballots will be affected in some way, whether it’s the late arrival of the ballot or lost mail.

Voters can track and see if their ballot has been received on the SC Elections website. If they see their ballot hasn’t been received by Election Day, they can go into an office and file one there, they said.

Knapp and other election leaders from other states were on a call with the postmaster general several months ago, where they hoped to address concerns and questions. Knapp said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had a pre-written statement and would not answer questions.

Your ballot will more than likely be delivered, Knapp said at the meeting, but you want to make sure it is. Hand deliver it or have someone do it for you, he stressed.

At the Oct. 17 meeting, Knapp and his team answered questions from election commissioners and Chairman Dennis Shedd, a former U.S. Court of Appeals judge. Shedd asked Knapp questions ranging from non-citizen voting to how the election night process works.

Shedd also asked Knapp about post-election results and how to know everything is accurate.

The office is doing everything it can to make sure the system runs smoothly on election night and beforehand. Knapp explained that when someone votes early, they vote as if it were Election Day. The ballot is scanned and counted in a unit, but no one reads that unit until 7pm on election night.

The office requires early testing to run the machines that count the ballots. They take a set of ballots and fill them out and analyze them to verify each choice. Counties conduct their own elections, the state election commission only advises them.