The county Bureau of Election is hopping these days.

In olden days, these first couple weeks of May were a time when the county’s gatekeepers of our most important political process — voting — would be winding down following an April primary during a contentious presidential election year.

They’d be certifying the election, conducting recounts if necessary and starting to prepare for the general election in November.

Instead, in what so many call our “new normal,” they’re busy processing more than 16,000 requests from county citizens wanting to exercise their right to vote. That means that nearly 13 percent of our county’s roughly 125,000 registered voters aren’t going to be scared away from their civic duty by the COVID-19 pandemic.

They’ll just do it from their kitchen table instead of their local polling place.

But this push to vote by mail-in ballot doesn’t come without its challenges. Last year, county elections officials saw just 807 requests for absentee ballots — 807.

If you’re one who like numbers and statistics — that represents a 1,900 percent increase in the number of county residents seeking an alternative way to ensure their voice is heard — already 20 times higher than last year’s number of mail-in or absentee ballot requests.

That’s a whole lot of additional workload for a county office that just lost its director last month, is losing poll workers who are fearful of the pandemic’s lingering effects and just had to hire new staff not seasoned with the system.

And yet, of those thousands of requests — less than 10 residents were mailed the wrong ballot.

That is certainly impressive and something to recognize. Officials from both sides of the aisle are determined to ensure Butler County’s registered voters are not only able, but empowered, to cast their ballot by whichever means best suits them — whether its in person at the polls June 2 or in the mail tomorrow.

Two months ago, no one could have ever predicted what the 2020 primary election would look like. Back then, Democrats were still narrowing a wide field of candidates, and President Donald Trump was rallying his base.

Back then, we all thought we’d be heading out to the polls April 28 to exercise our civic duty.

Seems so long ago now.

Kudos to the election bureau for tackling this challenge head on and making sure ballots are in the mail, or at the polls.