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Early voting was all the rage in South Carolina this year – with hundreds of thousands of Palmetto State voters banking their ballots ahead of tomorrow’s traditional election day (November 5, 2024).
Between October 21 and November 2 of this year, a whopping 1.47 million South Carolinians cast their ballots in the 2024 election, according to data from the S.C. Election Commission (SCVotes.gov). For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 43 percent of the state’s 3.42 million registered voters – and 58.1 percent of the total votes cast in the 2020 election.
In other words, more than four out of ten people registered to vote in South Carolina have already done so – and nearly six out of ten votes cast in the last presidential election are already in the bank.
Also, an estimated 100,000 absentee ballots have been returned – pushing the early vote total above 1.5 million.
“We are thrilled to see this record-breaking turnout during the early voting period as we head into a highly anticipated election day,” said Howie Knapp, the agency’s executive director. “If you haven’t cast your ballot yet, get to the polls tomorrow and exercise your right to vote.”
Visually inclined? Our peerless research director Jenn Wood has compiled this graph showing the flood of early voting and how it compared to numbers seen during the 2024 presidential primary in February (and the partisan primary races in June).
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Those bars are through the roof, people… a sign early voting is here to stay.
Are there any other signs we can glean from the data?
Breaking the numbers down by county, Democrats’ historical stronghold – Charleston County – saw 49.9 percent of its registered voters cast their ballots ahead of time. Greenville County, the most populous county in the Palmetto State (and a GOP stronghold) – saw 40.8 percent early voting participation.
Richland County – which has a high black population – saw 41.8 percent of its electorate vote early. Meanwhile, Horry County – one of the strongest counties for former president Donald Trump – saw 44 percent of its voters cast ballots early.
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Nationally, as of 10:59 a.m. EST on Monday (November 4, 2024), 78.1 million Americans had voted early – including 39.3 million in states which track registration by party affiliation – per data from the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
Of those party-affiliated early voters, 37.9 percent were registered as Democrats compared to 36 percent who were registered as Republicans. The remaining 26.1 percent were unaffiliated with either major party.
Polls in South Carolina open at 7:00 a.m. EST tomorrow and close twelve hours later at 7:00 p.m. EST. Anyone in line at the deadline will be allowed to vote, however. All voters “will be asked to present a photo identification when checking in to vote,” per SCVotes.
For Palmetto State residents who requested and received absentee ballots, those must be returned no later than 7:00 p.m. EST tomorrow.
“If you have an absentee ballot and have not yet returned it, return it as soon as possible,” election officials noted. “Consider returning your ballot in person to ensure it is received before the deadline.”
Anyone returning an absentee ballot in person must also “present a photo identification.”
Keep it tuned to FITSNews as we track election results nationwide and here in South Carolina on a very special live broadcast tomorrow night…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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