First day of SC early voting sees long lines after ‘huge’ turnout in Rock Hill region
The first day of early voting on Monday in York, Lancaster, and Chester counties in South Carolina’s general election brought what officials called a “huge” turnout, with around 5% of all registered voters casting their ballots.
High turnout meant long lines. Voters had to wait over an hour at some places, election and party officials said. And the big turnout south of Charlotte came just days after North Carolina set a record for early voting turnout.
Early voting began in South Carolina with the midterm 2022 election, but this is the first presidential election year with it. So, South Carolina’s 125,913 people who voted Monday easily broke the single-day record for early voting set during the 2022 midterms, the S.C. Election Commission said.
In York County, 9,309 people voted early on the first day. That’s about 4.8% of the county’s 195,289 registered voters.
In Lancaster County, 3,381 voters cast ballots Monday — about 4.7% of the county’s 70,404 registered voters.
Chester County’s turnout was even higher at 5.3%. A total of 1,081 people voted early there Monday in a county of 20,309 registered voters.
Election and party officials expect a high early voter turnout this year with the presidential race between Republican former President Donald Trump and current Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, but the first day showed higher turnout than expected.
York County Republican Party Chair Larry Barnett said he waited around 20 minutes to vote early himself, but heard from some people wait times were over an hour.
Nikita Jackson, Democratic Party Chair, said that high turnout caused some frustrations for people who had to wait to vote over an hour at Rock Hill’s two sites.
York County sees high turnout county-wide
York County’s six early voting sites produced slightly higher turnout in northern areas such as Fort Mill and Lake Wylie than Rock Hill. Totals provided by county elections officials are as follows:
▪ 1,831 votes at Fort Mill Community Center.
▪ 1,740 at Imagine Church of the Carolinas in Clover/Lake Wylie.
▪ 1,687 at Carolinas Cornerstone Church in Fort Mill.
▪ 1,573 at Baxter Hood center at York Technical College in Rock Hill.
▪ 1,342 at Lifeway Church in York.
▪ 1,165 at Clinton College in Rock Hill.
Long lines and parking
Jackson said there were voting machine problems at both Rock Hill early voting sites at York Technical College and Clinton College where one machine was down at each site for a period of time. And at Clinton, there was not enough parking to accommodate the large number of people before another lot was opened, Jackson said.
Jackson said she voiced those concerns Monday to county elections officials.
“A little glitch is a big glitch to me,” Jackson said.
Alison Mallard, spokesperson for the York County elections office, said single machines at the sites were offline for a few minutes because of jammed paper ballots put through machines to cast a person’s ballot, but those were quickly rectified when the machines were reset.
All locations have multiple voting machines, she said.
Elections officials urged people to look at their sample ballot online before heading to vote so they know which races and measures are on their ballots. All York County ballots includes a statewide referendum question and a countywide vote on the Pennies for Progress road program, she said.
“The better prepared voters are, the quicker it moves,” Mallard said.
Registered voters can go to scvotes.org and see sample ballots.
On the website, click on the voters tab at the top. Then, click on ”Get my sample ballot.” Any registered voter can then log in with required information, which includes your county, name, date of birth and the last four digits of your social security number.
When logged in, click on “sample ballot.” Your ballot will appear on the screen and look just like the ballot you will receive when you vote.
Turnout high In Indian Land, Chester
Of the 3,381 ballots cast Monday in Lancaster County, 2,091 were at the two Indian Land early voting sites. Another 996 were cast in Lancaster and 2094 in rural Kershaw.
“We had overwhelming turnout for the first day,” said Mary Ann Hudson, director of Lancaster County’s elections.
Hudson added there are two Indian Land town halls partially because of the skyrocketing population there.
“About half of our county population is there in Indian Land, and precincts there historically have a high turnout even before we had early voting,” Hudson said.
Chester County had 713 people vote at the elections office early voting site in Chester, and 368 in rural Richburg, said Karen Roach of the elections office.
Early voting in SC until Nov. 2
Early voting runs through Nov. 2. Election Day is Nov. 5.
South Carolina also offers absentee ballots by mail to residents who are unable to vote in person, but they must be requested by Oct. 25.
Registered voters can go to any of the sites in their county of residence and cast their ballot in early voting, elections official said. The ballot is the same as an Election Day ballot.
A list of early voting sites, addresses, and more information also is available on county elections office web sites and at the S.C. Election Commission web site scvotes.gov.
For questions, call your county elections office. Those numbers are 803-684-1242 in York County, 803-285-2969 in Lancaster County and 803-385-2562 in Chester County.
This story was originally published October 22, 2024 at 2:12 PM with the headline "First day of SC early voting sees long lines after ‘huge’ turnout in Rock Hill region."
