Nearly half of registered voters in South Carolina have already cast a ballot. Where has turnout been the highest?

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — Nearly half of South Carolina’s registered voters have already cast a ballot in the 2024 general election with just one day until Election Day, according to data from the South Carolina Election Commission.

About 1.4 million votes were cast across the state during the two-week in-person early voting period. Additionally, 100,160 absentee ballots had been returned to county election offices as of 9 a.m. on November 4.

Greenville County leads the state with a combined 151,662 ballots cast ahead of Election Day followed by Charleston County with 151,662 ballots and Horry County with 131,503 ballots.

Overall, 46% of South Carolina’s 3.4 million registered voters have already participated in the 2024 election.

McCormick County takes the top spot for turnout with about 57% of registered voters having participated so far. Charleston, Georgetown, and Lancaster counties have each seen about 54% of registered voters turnout ahead of Tuesday.

In 2020, pre-election voting totals were 1.3 million and totals have already surpassed that this election cycle, marking a new record in the state with more time still to go.

The high turnout can be partially attributed to new no-excuse early voting rules that are now in place across the state. Early voting and by-mail absentee voting were offered in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but current early voting laws were not established until 2022.

And while millions have already weighed in on the 2024 races, election officials are still preparing for a high turnout on Tuesday.

“In 2020, we had the most ballots ever cast in an election, and that was around 2.5 million votes,” State Election Commission spokesperson John-Michael Catalano said. “Well we’ve already gotten over 1.5 million now, so we could be seeing a million on Election Day. I think that’s a realistic expectation, but it could be more or it could be less. We just won’t know until after all the ballots have been cast on election night.”

Early votes are not recorded or tabulated until after polls close at 7 p.m., but Catalano said they expect to have results reported in full by the end of the night.

“All of the early voting ballots have been scanned into the scanners by voters so basically after the polls close on election night counties just have to close the polls and issue a report so it’s a very quick process,” he said. “Early voting and absentee results are typically the first ones you’re going to see on election night but it can kind of vary by county depending on how they upload their results.”

South Carolina does not require registration by political party, so it remains to be seen whether Democrats or Republicans will benefit more, but the record-breaking turnout indicates high enthusiasm overall for the election.

“I do think there is enthusiasm just for a presidential election, especially one that is so competitive, so tight between Harris and Trump,” said Kirk Randazzo, a professor of political science at the University of South Carolina. “But the other thing is I think folks just really like the convenience of early voting, being able to go on their schedule as opposed to having to rush through on Election Day.”