Ballots were mailed over the weekend

The bag of an Oconee mail carrier is likely to have gotten heavier in the last day or two.  Over the weekend, the county elections office put in the mail around six thousand ballots to be filled out and returned to the office in time to be counted for the November General Election.  According to Ryan Nowland, assistant elections director, the mailed ballots are the ones that were applied for in recent weeks, with the exception of those who requested mail ballots in only the last few days.  Voters who filled out their applications within only the last few days will have to remain patient for a little while longer.  And there is some impatience out there, as we learned this morning in a phone call with one voter.  The issue of South Carolina allowing state voters to vote absentee is a political football.  Republicans, led by President Trump, are worried about potential fraud.  Democrats, however, say an exception to allow absentee voting is justified for safety during a pandemic.  In one of the latest twists to this political football, the U-S Supreme Court re-instated a South Carolina requirement that every returned absentee ballot must bear the signature of a witness.