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by WILL FOLKS
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South Carolinians showed up in significant numbers for the first day of early voting in the runoff phase of their partisan primary elections – although the run on the polls was nowhere near as intense as it was ahead of the June 9 primary vote.
According to the S.C. Election Commission (SCVotes), 36,838 South Carolinians voted early on Wednesday (June 17, 2026). By contrast, 56,407 showed up on the first day of early voting during the primary phase.
There are only two days of early voting ahead of the runoff election next Tuesday (June 23, 2026). Those wishing to vote early must do so prior to 5:00 p.m. EDT this afternoon (June 18, 2026). A third day of early voting has been cancelled due to the federal government recognizing Juneteenth as a national holiday.
For those of you unfamiliar with how partisan primary races work in South Carolina, if no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first ballot a runoff is held between the top two vote-getters two weeks later. In the Republican primary, three races – governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner – all advanced to the runoff round. Every other statewide race on the GOP side either was either resolved on the first ballot – or wasn’t contested.
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As we previously reported, Democrats dominated the initial early voting period. A whopping 188,006 of South Carolina’s 319,580 early primary voters – or 58.8% of the early-voting electorate – participated in the Democrat primary. By contrast, 131,574 South Carolinians – or 41.2% of early voters – participated in the GOP primary.
When all the votes were finally counted, though, Republicans maintained their dominance at the polls. All told, 472,956 voters participated in the top-of-the-ticket GOP governor’s race – compared to 371,993 in the Democrat gubernatorial primary.
The surge in early Democrat voting is highly unlikely to recur in the runoff.
For starters, Democrats’ marquee race – the gubernatorial primary election – was won on the first ballot by state representative Jermaine Johnson. U.S. Senate candidate Annie Andrews also won her party’s nomination on the first vote – along with Democrat nominees for superintendent of education, secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller general.
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RELATED | EARLY VOTING BREAKDOWN
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Democrat candidates for attorney general and agriculture commissioner faced no primary opposition, meaning there is no statewide runoff election on the Democrat side of the ledger. Also, only two of the state’s seven congressional districts went to runoffs – further reducing the likelihood of Democrat turnout across the state.
Perhaps more importantly, the issue that drove the early surge in Democrat turnout – opposition to president Donald Trump‘s attempted redrawing of the Palmetto State’s congressional districts – is no longer a factor.
For Republicans, the head-to-head matchup between two-term lieutenant governor Pamela Evette and four-term attorney general Alan Wilson is driving turnout, while a competitive attorney general primary between eighth circuit solicitor David Stumbo and state senator Stephen Goldfinch is also pushing voters to the polls.
Only one of South Carolina’s seven congressional districts features a GOP runoff – a bitter first district battle between Charleston County councilwoman Jenny Costa Honeycutt and S.C. state representative Marvin “Mark” Smith.
During the last competitive GOP gubernatorial runoff election eight years ago, 343,635 Republicans showed up to cast their ballots. Expect that number to be easily eclipsed during the current cycle…
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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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