First day of early voting breaks SC records • SC Daily Gazette

COLUMBIA – Early voting in South Carolina is already breaking records.

About 125,900 people voted on Monday, the opening day of early voting for the general election, according to a state election commission news release.

That’s a huge jump from the one-day peak on November 4, 2022, when 70,100 people voted. That was the Friday before Election Day.

“We are pleased that voters are taking advantage of the convenience of early voting, and we expect significant voter turnout this election,” Howard Knapp, director of the State Election Commission, said in the news release.

Voters Monday included members of South Carolina’s congressional delegation: Reps. Jim Clyburn, Nancy Mace and Joe Wilson, who are seeking re-election, all announced they voted on the first day of early voting.

This is the first presidential election in South Carolina to feature true, no-excuse early voting under a law passed in May 2022. Voter turnout tends to be higher in presidential elections than in midterm elections.

In 2020, lawmakers allowed people to vote in person via absentee ballot without requiring an excuse for early voting. Previously, voters had to decide on a permissible exception to voting before Election Day – or fib. Lawmakers repealed that rule amid the pandemic, but the changes were only temporary. The 2022 law provides for true, uniform early voting.

The 2020 general election marked the first time in state history that more people voted by mail than on Election Day; 1.3 million South Carolinians voted early, representing nearly 53% of all ballots cast.

However, according to the State Election Commission, no one-day absence statistics in 2020 came close to Monday’s numbers.

There is still plenty of time to vote early, and each county has between one and seven locations where people can vote before Election Day. Each voter can choose the option that is most common to them in the county in which they are registered.

Polls across the state will be open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Saturday, Nov. 2, with one exception. They will remain closed Oct. 27 because state law prohibits voting on Sundays.

For more information on election deadlines and candidates, see our voter guide.

Adair Ford Boroughs, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina, also announced Tuesday that she has appointed an attorney to handle issues related to the election, including voting rights violations, voter fraud and possible threats of violence against election officials.

The appointment is part of the Justice Department’s Election Day Program, which works to combat violations of federal election law. The attorney overseeing the program in South Carolina is John Potterfield. His public number for complaints or concerns is (803) 919-3092.