The number of registered voters in the 1st Congressional District has risen about 3 percent since the beginning of the year, the state Office of Elections said yesterday .

The office did not take an official count yesterday, the deadline for people in the district to register to vote in the mail-in only special election. Elections spokesman Rex Quidilla said because yesterday was only a deadline for people to have their applications postmarked, the office will wait until next week to do a final count.

Elections staff said there were about 316,000 voters counted in the district earlier this week. There were about 307,000 at the beginning of the year.

The election is being conducted by mail. Registered voters will be mailed a packet with a vote-by-mail ballot and a return envelope. Packets will be mailed about 20 days before the election. Ballots must be received by the state no later than 6 p.m. on May 22.