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Early Voting Starts Friday

Kent Osborne
/
SDPB

Absentee voting opens Friday across the state. Registered voters can cast their early ballot ahead of the November 8 general election.

One Auditor in the state says absentee ballot numbers are up, given the presidential election.

Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson says her office has received about 4,000 early voting ballot requests this year. She says absentee voting numbers are about 25 percent higher than the 2008 election, when Barack Obama was first elected.

Pearson says about a quarter of registered voters in Pennington county will vote early.

She says Pennington County numbers are skewed because of permanent RV residences, which make up about 1,500 early ballots.  She says in addition to picking up an early ballot, voters have two other options to vote absentee.

“They need to be able to provide a picture ID, or be able to sign a personal ID affidavit and they can vote right there. They can request it through the mail and we need a copy of their ID or a notarized application, which are on both ours and the Secretary of State’s website to be mailed in, and then we can mail them a ballot. Then, they can return it either in person or by mail.”

Pearson says voters can vote early up until the day before the election.  On the other side of the state Brown County officials, in Aberdeen say so far they have about 140 requests for early ballots, which they say is about average for a presidential election year.