Montgomery County’s Board of Elections has received more than 50,000 completed ballots for the Nov. 6 election — 16,000 in person and 34,000 by mail — representing more than 13 percent of all registered voters in the county. And the pace is increasing.

BOE Deputy Director Steve Harsman said Monday morning that with eight early-voting days to go, early turnout was ahead of the 2008 pace, when more than 71,000 Montgomery County residents voted early.

In the first three weeks of early voting, the county saw 2,800 to 3,200 in-person voters each week, not counting provisional ballots. But last week, when hours were extended to 7 p.m. instead of 5 p.m., more than 6,000 people voted in person. The number marched from 878 last Tuesday, to 1,206 Wednesday, 1,427 Thursday and 1,617 Friday.

Local Democratic and Republican leaders are making their final get-out-the-vote pushes. County Republican Party Chairman Rob Scott planned to ask for an all-out volunteer push at a party meeting Monday night. County Democratic Chairman Mark Owens said his party had a similar meeting last week to plan final phone banks, door-to-door walks and transportation to the polls for voters who need it.

Montgomery County could see final-weekend voting turnout decline from 2008, as the state-mandated Saturday-Monday hours are a large decrease from the county’s 2008 hours. But for some other counties that had very limited 2008 hours, the weekend will result in increased access.

More than 160 Montgomery County workers gathered Saturday to open the first 50,000 ballot envelopes in hand, so they could be scanned. Harsman said totals can’t be run on those ballots until polls close on Election Day, but having them scanned will help the county report results in a timely fashion.

Almost 1,000 voters have already had to vote by provisional ballot in Montgomery County, and some of those feared their vote wouldn’t count. Harsman said those votes do not appear in the unofficial results shown on Election Night, but could end up swinging a race.

“We have a 10-day canvass period (after Election Day) to go through and determine the eligibility of those provisional ballots,” Harsman said. “Once we determine (which ones are) eligible, they’ll be included in the official count. We’ve had many elections in the past where a race was so close, the provisional ballots flipped the results for a candidate or issue.”

Any residents who are unsure of their voting status for Election Day can check their registration status and polling location with their county board of elections, either by phone or on their BOE website.

“We want all voters to have confidence in the Montgomery County Board of Elections and our results, and know that every eligible ballot cast will be counted,” Harsman said.

Montgomery County has 383,922 registered voters for this election, down from 390,119 in 2008. Harsman attributed that to population decline and efforts to clean up the voter rolls. He said the Secretary of State’s office may provide one last update this week.

Montgomery County consolidated many precincts and polling locations in 2009, so Harsman continued to encourage in-person and absentee voting to help alleviate Election Day crowds.

The Board of Elections office was busy Monday, with about 35 people waiting to be processed at 10:30 a.m. But the BOE had nearly 20 staffers working with residents, and voter Kamilah Lee of Dayton said the process went smoothly.

“It might be long lines, cold outside, raining (on Election Day), so I’m just trying to avoid the hassle,” she said. “This was a very good, efficient process. We were here 15-20 minutes and they have free parking. I’m done, it’s over, let’s move on.”