LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Miss. — Despite not having early voting, Mississippians are still making sure their ballots are cast before Election Day. Thousands of qualified voters are turning out for absentee voting.
Despite a rainy Wednesday, Lafayette County election officials said they saw hundreds of people show up Wednesday, adding to record absentee voting numbers.
“We’re averaging somewhere between three and four hundred a day,” said Jeff Busby, the Circuit Clerk of Lafayette County. “We knew we would be up in absentee voting this year because of COVID and the concerns of standing in lines especially for our elderly.”
But Busby’s team is still surprised by the numbers they are seeing. They anticipated 4,000 absentee voters, but as of Wednesday morning, they were at 5,400.
Busby believes the most absentee voters they’ve ever had in Lafayette County was 2,300
“So, we have more than doubled and probably tripled that amount before Saturday at 5 o’clock,” Busby said.
This year, they have switched to paper ballots to speed up the process.
“Well you don’t have to wait on a machine when you come to your voting precinct,” Busby said. “You’re getting your paper ballot, you’re going to a station, you can vote it then put it through the scanner.”
Overall there are about 32,000 active voters in the county. Looking forward to Election Day, Busby is not sure how many more people will turn out, but he’s happy with what he has seen so far.
“I think in this election people will turn out to vote, and I think we will see higher numbers across the board,” Busby said.
In Mississippi absentee voting ends Saturday evening.