<h3>By Sally Mahan</h3>
Several seats are up for election Tuesday, Nov. 8, for the South Carolina House of Representatives.

The SC House of Representatives consists of 124 part-time citizen legislators elected every two years to represent the state's 124 separate single-member districts.

The current House membership is made up of 77 Republicans and 46 Democrats with one vacancy.

As outlined by the state constitution, the General Assembly's annual session begins on the second Tuesday in January and runs through the first Thursday in June.

State representatives are paid $10,400 annually, in addition to travel and other expenses.

One of the seats up for election is Beaufort’s District 124.

Candidates running for the seat are incumbent Republican Shannon Erickson and Democrat Robert Green.

The Lady’s Island Business and Professional Association asked both candidates to tell us why he should be the next representative for District 124.
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>Absentee voting</b></p>
There is no “early voting” in South Carolina, but absentee voting is currently taking place.

Persons qualified to vote by absentee ballot include members of the military; overseas citizens; students attending school outside their county of residence; the physically disabled; people who plan on being on vacation; people who for reasons of employment will not be able to vote on election day; jurors; hospital patients; people 65 and over; and other classifications, which can be found at www.scvotes.org.

To cast an absentee ballot, voters must apply for a ballot.

Visit www.bcgov.net, click on Departments and go to Board of Elections, or call or visit the Beaufort office at 15 John Galt Road, 843-255-6900; or the Bluffton office at 61B Ulmer Road, 843-255-6940.

Absentee voting hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday; and by 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8.