Early voting for SC primary elections starts today. What you need to know
Early voting in South Carolina’s statewide primary election begins Tuesday.
For the first time, South Carolinians may vote early in person without an excuse, courtesy of a wide-ranging new law that established a two-week early voting period and a series of other election-related reforms.
Polls will be open each of the next nine weekdays — Tuesday, May 31 to Friday, June 10 — from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., but are closed on the weekends.
They’ll reopen on Election Day, June 14, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters may cast ballots early at all county voter registration and elections offices, as well as any additional sites counties designate for early voting. The early voting process will work like it does on Election Day, with all voters asked to present a photo ID (driver’s license, passport, military ID) when checking in.
All counties are required to have at least one early voting site, but may have up to seven early voting locations.
Richland County, with more than 280,000 registered voters, has five such sites for the June primary, while Lexington County has just one — the county voter registration office — for its more than 200,000 registered voters.
For a full list of early voting sites in all counties, visit www.scvotes.gov/early-voting.
If any race goes to a runoff — runoff elections are held two weeks after the primary when no candidate wins a majority of the vote — voters will have three days to vote early.
Early voting for June runoffs will be held Wednesday, June 22 through Friday, June 24, ahead of the runoff election on Tuesday, June 28.
Early voting hours and locations for the runoffs will be the same as the primaries.
A ‘huge step forward’ for South Carolina
The bill that established true early voting passed unanimously in early May and was quickly signed into law, making South Carolina the 45th state to enact early voting.
“We saw (in 2020) how many South Carolinians liked it and used it,” House Majority Whip Brandon Newton, R-Lancaster, said earlier this month. “We knew that there should be a broad consensus to having pure early voting.”
With the exception of 2020 — when state lawmakers extended absentee voting to all registered voters due to the COVID-19 pandemic — South Carolina had allowed only excused absentee voting.
Excuses, which include age and disability status, among other things, are still required for voters who cast absentee ballots by mail, but are no longer necessary to vote early in person.
Newton, who shepherded the election bill through the House, called the newly established early voting period a “huge step forward for working people in South Carolina” and has encouraged voters to take advantage of it to help reduce lines on Election Day.
“I plan on being there when the polls open on May 31 for early voting for our primary and I want to be one of the first South Carolinians to be casting an early vote,” he said earlier this month at a ceremonial bill signing for the election legislation. “I hope you join me in doing that.”