Half a million people have voted early in South Carolina so far

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- More than half a million South Carolina voters have already cast a ballot for the 2024 election, putting the state on pace to shatter the previous early voting record.

The South Carolina Election Commission reported that 127,677 votes were cast on Thursday, bringing the four-day early voting total to 511,013 votes.

The total is coming close to the 561,563 ballots that were cast early during the entire two-week early voting period in 2022, the first election cycle in which the option was available to all voters without needing an excuse.

“We are very happy with the turnout so far and we still have over half of the early voting period left to go,” State Election Commission spokesperson John Michael Catalano said. “It’s looking like we will have well over a million ballots cast before we get to Election Day.”

Charleston County is leading the state with 49,058 ballots cast since early voting began on October 21. Greenville County is right behind with 43,044 followed by Horry County with 40,171 ballots cast.

Early voting is available from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. at polling locations across the state through November 2. Early voting is not available on Sundays.

“We hope that voters will continue to take advantage of it as we head into November,” Catalano added.

South Carolina has 3.4 million registered voters.