100,000-plus SC residents cast ballots during early voting window for primary elections
More than 100,000 South Carolina voters have cast a ballot in the 2022 primary elections as the state’s new early voting window came to a close late Friday, the State Election Commission reported.
The election agency reported 100,450 South Carolinians voted early in the two-week period, not including voters who submitted absentee ballots. State election officials received an additional batch of more than 12,000 absentee votes last week, the Associated Press reported.
No-excuse early voting was open for two weeks, and voter turnout increased daily as the primary election on June 14 neared. Almost 3% of the more than 3.5 million voters registered statewide voted early.
Horry County — home base of the competitive 7th Congressional District Republican primary between frontrunners U.S. Rep. Tom Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, and Trump-backed challenger state Rep. Russell Fry — had the highest turnout of early voters at 11,618.
Richland, Beaufort and Charleston counties followed with high turnout, according to the South Carolina Election Commission.
One concern voiced by some involved during the early voting implementation was the lack of available voting locations.
Horry County had four locations available, and Richland County had five. Charleston and Greenville counties, two fast-growing counties, had only one location.
Greenville — with 3,898 early voters — has the largest population in South Carolina, and Charleston County — with 6,464 early voters — comes in at third after Richland County, according to 2020 census data.
Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the State Election Commission, said the number of polling locations comes as a per-county decision, but said the law’s last-minute enactment challenged counties to find a sufficient location for polling.
“We know that when you open more locations, more people will vote early,” Whitmire said, adding availability will be different in the future.
It is hard to compare previous elections because there has never been official early voting in South Carolina.
But in 2020, because of COVID-19, in-person absentee and absentee ballot voting options accounted for more than half of the voters who voted during the 30-day window.
The two years are “apples to oranges,” but there is typically only around 20% participation rate in primary voting, according to Whitmire. He also noted the difficulty in comparing primary participation year-to-year because competition and the ballot options vary frequently.
No election in the past 22 years has seen higher than around 27% voter participation in state primary elections.
Whitmire also said that states with early voting options tend to have more people vote in the early period than on Election Day.
“I think early voting will look different in future statewide elections, including this November, with more options out there overall,” Whitmire said.
Polls will open at 7 a.m. Tuesday and close at 7 p.m. Any voter still in line by 7 p.m. will be able to cast their ballot.
This story was originally published June 13, 2022 at 12:37 PM.
