The Schuylkill County Election Bureau has received an “overwhelming” number of applications for mail-in ballots.

A message on the bureau’s website said it is doing the best it can to process applications.

“We’re a little busy,” Christine Marmas, lead clerk in the Schuylkill County Election Bureau said.

She attributes the increase to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19.

Marmas said 2,600 people had applied for mail-in ballots online as of Aug. 26. As of Tuesday, 2,868 voters had requested mail-in or absentee ballots. A completed application must be received by the county elections office by 5 p.m. Oct. 27. The deadline to return mail-in and absentee ballots is 8 p.m. Nov. 3, the date of the general election.

Approximately 1,200 mail-in or absentee paper ballots were received at the election bureau, which is 420 N. Centre St., Pottsville, as of Tuesday.

Oct. 19 is the deadline to register to vote in the election.

During the June 2 primary election, 31,106 of the 85,523 registered voters in the county cast ballots, Marmas said. Of those, 19,760 were in person, 9,164 were mail-in, 1,870 were absentee and 312 were provisional, she said.

Voter registration has increased since June. As of Tuesday, there were 86,813 registered voters, 46,225 Republicans and 29,696 Democrats. The remainder designated their party affiliation as something else including the Purge party and Best Person party, according to Schuylkill County elections records.

Marmas said voters should return their ballots in a timely fashion.

“Why would you wait to the last minute?” she said.

She said voters have been calling asking why they received additional ballot information. She said often the push to get out the vote is by other entities, not the election bureau.

Still, no matter what method you vote by, doing so is important.

“Everybody’s vote is important. Every single one,” Marmas said.

More information is available on votespa.com. For questions, call the Schuylkill County Election Bureau at 570-628-1467.