COLUMBIA, S.C. - Blackhawk pilot Jimmy Gosnell has had a number of things to do before he is deployed to Iraq later this month: finish some paperwork, teach his teenage son to drive and cast his vote for president.

The 45-year-old National Guard member from Irmo crossed voting off his list recently, when he, like a growing number of South Carolinians, cast his absentee ballot in the 2004 election.

Gosnell is hardly alone. Many counties across South Carolina are seeing more people request absentee ballots than previous elections. Voter registration phone lines have been jammed, and lines are forming at crowded offices.

"It really kicked in the last couple of weeks," said Jill Miller, Charleston County voter registration director. Her office receives about 500 to 600 calls a day requesting absentee ballots.

"People are coming in, and we're still three weeks away," Miller said last week. She expects to have as many as 12,000 absentee votes, an increase of at least a couple thousand from the previous presidential election.

South Carolina allows early voting for reasons including military service, vacations, disabilities and being 65 or older.

Nearly 100,000 South Carolinians voted absentee in the 2000 general election and 74,000 - a high number for a non-presidential election year - did the same in 2002. A statewide total for this year's election won't be available until after Nov. 2, state Election Commission spokeswoman Hannah Majewski said.

Gosnell said he has talked with colleagues in his Guard company about absentee voting, but didn't know how many would vote before the unit deploys Oct. 28.

His wife, Ana, also may vote absentee because her hands will be full with the couple's two children and nursing school.

"There is a lot of things we're trying to take care of," she said. "It's going to be hard when he's gone."

Local officials say absentee voting is on the rise. More attention is being paid to this election because of the war in Iraq and slow economy, more people have registered to vote, and there's a growing number of elderly South Carolina voters who automatically qualify for the early privilege.

State political parties have targeted absentee voters with mailouts and are offering to drive them to their county election office if needed.

Thousands of voters have contacted the Republican Party about applications, said state GOP executive director Luke Byars.

"We're actively pursuing that and think it's going to make a huge difference November second," Byars said.

With so many servicemen and women overseas, many counties made the military a priority, sending those ballots out first.

"We know that they have to get there ... quicker than somebody on Main Street," said Gloria Wilson, Richland County voter registration board chairwoman. She estimates the county will fulfill about 20,000 absentee ballot requests this year compared with about 14,000 four years ago.

The county is using its ombudsman's office to answer calls. With busy signals galore, Wilson said she's also getting complaints.

"We're doing the best we can," she said, noting her office is not only taking absentee requests but also is trying to get newly registered voters on the rolls.

In Sumter County, where Shaw Air Force Base is located, about 800 absentee ballots have been sent overseas to military members, said county voter registration director Pat Jefferson.

Hers will be the only county in the state using punchcard ballots this election. Sumter officials decided against implementing the new electronic touch-screen machines, which will be used in many counties across the state.

In some places the new machines weren't yet online for absentee voters. Officials in Greenville and Lexington counties said they plan to have them working soon.

"We hope within a couple days to have the touch-screens up in the office," Lexington County voter registration director Dean Crepes said last week. Meanwhile, early voters cast their ballots on old machines.

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On the Net: http://www.state.sc.us/scsec/absent.htm