More than 20,000 SC voters have cast ballots early with about one week until primaries
More than 20,000 South Carolina voters have taken advantage of the state’s new two-week early voting window ahead of the June 14 primary elections.
With about a week left to go until Election Day, that number — which does not include absentee ballots and is only three day’s worth of voter data per the State Election Commission — is expected to double, if not grow more, as political campaigns and parties let voters know they can cast ballots early and without an excuse in the primary election.
Voters in two Midlands counties — Richland and Lexington — told The State newspaper that the change in the voting schedule is positive and convenient. So far, Richland County has recorded 1,725 early voters, and Lexington County listed 549 early voters as of Thursday, according to the election commission.
Its quick implementation, however, has caused some headaches for voters who, in some cases, discovered only one polling precinct in their county and for some county election offices that are still looking for volunteers to work on Election Day.
In bipartisan support, the South Carolina Legislature passed a bill this year to establish two weeks of no-excuse early voting. In a ceremonial bill signing last month, Gov. Henry McMaster was flanked by the chairmen of the Democratic and Republican state parties.
South Carolina joins 44 other states that have early in-person voting, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Early voting ends June 10 — four days before Election Day.
The law’s implementation came as short notice for some poll officials, like Lenice Shoemaker, director of the Lexington County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, who said the change had been in a state of back-and-forth since February.
For county election officials, this meant expediting the training process to prepare polling clerks for early voting, while still figuring out the new system.
In Lexington County, Shoemaker oversees only one polling location to serve the county’s 203,959 registered voters.
“It’s like having an election every day,” Shoemaker said.
Voter Jenna Rees-White, an academic advisor at the University of South Carolina, said it was a 30-minute drive to vote at the Lexington County Board of Voter Registration and Elections Office.
Although Rees-White made it in time, she said she worried that the distance could be a deterrent for other voters.
“I have the luxury of being able to go out on my lunch hour, a lot of people will not,” Rees-White said. “I have to come out, turn around and go back. But I have time for that, but I know others don’t.”
Other Lexington voters said distance wasn’t any issue, and the window of time provided ample opportunity to cast their ballot.
Beth Hendricks, Lexington County’s elections manager, has worked for the county for almost 20 years. She said it wasn’t easy to adapt to new procedures, but the office’s workload decreased because employees didn’t have to deal with a more tedious voting option — absentee ballots.
Hendricks said voters will benefit from the simple process, more so than with absentee ballots, and expressed confidence in the system, in part, from seeing the turnout.
“As you prepare for elections, you learn each time what works and what doesn’t work,” Hendricks said. “So, right now, it seems we’re learning all of that. We’re gonna have to do our fine tuning and our tweaking again, and find those things that really work really great that we want to expand on.”
Unlike Lexington County, Richland County offers five polling locations for its early voters.
Of the state’s 46 counties, 18 counties have more than one polling place, with Richland and Florence counties tied with the most locations. Richland County has 282,038 registered voters.
Although she’s noticed a slow start to early voting, Alexandria Stephens, the director of Richland County Voter Registration and Elections, said there have been no reported issues at early voting locations.
Stephens said she is hopeful that more South Carolinians will take advantage of the new no-excuse early voting period.
Several voters from Richland County told The State they enjoyed participating in early voting.
With nearly no line at the ballot box, voters said they saw fewer crowds as a positive aspect of the process. Some said they voted in advance because they had prior obligations, while others, who in other years used absentee voting, also liked the switch.
”Being this the first time ever to have early voting in the state, we think it’s something positive,” said Lawrence Moore, chairman of the nonprofit Carolina for All, which suggested additions to the Legislature to further fine tune the bill. “But knowing the history of South Carolina, and knowing South Carolina, we all understand that it falls ... short of true democracy and free of voter suppression. So, yeah, got a little bit more work to do.”
Noting some shortcomings of the law, Lynn Teague with the League of Women Voters said she remains optimistic of the law’s effect on the 2022 primary elections.
“We hope this will increase turnout because the primaries matter tremendously,” Teague said. “Voters underestimate how much they matter.”
