Three satellite polling places in Beaufort County open Wednesday as the early voting period winds down this week.

The Beaufort County Board of Elections opens those polling places in Aurora, Belhaven and Chocowinity at 8 a.m. Wednesday, closing at 6 p.m. Those satellite sites will be open those same hours Thursday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday. The Aurora satellite site is at the Aurora Commu­nity Building, 442 Third St. Belhaven’s satellite site is at the John A. Wilkinson Center, 144 W. Main St. The Chocowinity satellite location is at Chocowin­ity Volunteer Fire Depart­ment, 512 E. N.C. Highway 33.

County elections officials expect voter turnout to pick up in the final days of early voting, which it’s done in previous elections.

As of Saturday, 61 voters in the Chocowinity precinct had returned absentee ballots, the most from any of the county’s 21 precincts. The Tranter’s Creek precinct was next with 49 voters returning absentee ballots, followed by the Washington 4 precinct with 44 absentee ballots returned.

Tuesday was the last day for civilian voters to request absentee ballots, which must be returned by Election Day. For military and overseas voters, Monday is the last day to request absentee mail-in ballots by 5 p.m. Those ballots must be received electronically by the board of elections by 7:30 p.m. Election Day.

The last day for a board of election to receive an absentee ballot from a civilian given a late exception is by 5 p.m. Nov. 14 (if mailed and postmarked on or before Nov. 14). Military and overseas voters given a late exception have until Nov. 17 for their absentee ballots to be received and counted, if mailed before 5 p.m. Election Day.

As of Monday evening, 8,354 county voters had marked ballots at the board’s office during the one-stop voting period for Tuesday’s general election. That’s an average of 835 voters a day in the first 10 days of the early voting period at the board’s office. With the satellite locations opening today, that average could increase as voters have three more sites to mark ballots.

During the first 10 days of the early voting period for the 2012 general election, 9,179 voters cast ballots, for an average of 918 voters a day. In the 2012 general election, 12,134 voters marked ballots during the 13-day early voting period, according to data from the Board of Elections.