COLUMBIA, S.C. — As early voting for the South Carolina primary nears its end, election officials say there's been a significant increase in voter turnout compared to the last major primary two years ago.
In 2022, South Carolina had a total of 100,990 votes cast during the entire eight-day early voting period. But this year the state is on track to surpass that number, according to South Carolina Election Commission spokesperson John Catalano.
"It's approximately a 33 percent increase through six days of the early voting totals," Catalano said. "So by this point, we had 51,000 turn out for the first six days of early voting in 2022, and now for the first six days of early voting this year, we are almost at 70,000."
But what's driving this extra participation? Dr. Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University, believes the current political climate may be a major factor.
"We are seeing a bit of a battle for the soul of the Republican Party in a way that's driving people out," Huffmon explained. "Both sides are counting this election as a truly existential election, whether or not America will continue to be America after this election. Both sides are pushing that narrative, and I think that's pushing people to the polls."
However, Huffmon notes that at least so far, the demographic of early voters is skewing older.
"You have to appeal to who's going to turn out to vote, and right now, that's primarily the Baby Boomers," Huffmon said.
Despite this trend, Huffmon believes younger generations will soon play a more significant role.
"What you're going to see as the Millennials start to realize their future is in their hands, if they start to show up, then you're going to start seeing a lot of politicians turning toward the Millennial generation."
Until that shift occurs, Huffmon doesn't see much change among political candidates.
"The younger generations have seen people feeling one way, yet the government is doing something else. They've become much more cynical," Huffmon continued. "We are not going to see any substantial change from either party until young voters start showing up."
This year marks only the second time South Carolina has held early voting for statewide primary elections, although they did allow an expanded absentee in-person in 2020 due to the pandemic. The South Carolina Election Commission said they think some of the increase in voter turnout has happened by making voting more accessible.
"It's just like voting at your polling place on Election Day, except you're doing it early at an early voting center at a time that works best for you, not just being forced into that one day on Tuesday," Catalano concluded.
Early voting ends this Friday, June 7th, at 5 p.m. For those who miss the early voting period, primary day voting will be available on Tuesday.