COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina primary elections are just hours away. As voters get ready to cast their ballot, voting officials have tips on how you can have a smooth voting experience.
Voters head to the polls to narrow down the ballot for November, up for grabs a lot of important races including all 170 members of the statehouse and and some sheriff races.
“For the early voting period for this year, it was a total of approximately 120,000. Donors turned out early, and 2022. We saw approximately 100,000. So that's approximately a 20% increase,” John Micheal Catalano with the South Carolina Election Commission.
He says while lots of voters have turned their ballots in early, many will still be headed to the polls to cast their ballots for the primary election.
"The busiest time to vote on most election days is always first thing in the morning, that's typically when you see the longest lines, and you'll see it pick up a little bit at the end too. We're not expecting a high turnout, so we don't expect long lines, but if we see them they'll likely be in the morning,” Catalano said.
Election day is Tuesday June 11. Polls will be open from 7 am to 7 pm but before you head to cast your ballot, there are things you should keep in mind.
“If it's a candidate in this election, by law the 500 foot radius there should not be any campaign materials. Shirts, hats, the face masks. I've seen people with candidate face masks, buttons, that should not be within that 500 foot radius. We also would have candidate representative that may be outside but they’re also by law not able to have those items,” Travis Alexander said.
Alexander is the director for voter registration in Richland County. He says voters should be sure they’re in the right area and voting in their respective districts before they head to the polls.
“When you get to a voting precinct, all of our electronic poll books where you check in, if you're a registered voter for Richland County, it will show which precinct you're supposed to be at. If you go to the wrong precinct, those poll workers can expand their search and find out where's your location, have the address and even they can push out a maybe like a map thing to your phone if you have a cell phone,” he said.
While you’re able to access maps to polling locations on your phones, election officials say they are not allowed inside polling locations.
“You don't want to accidentally capture somebody else's ballot where they have their mark selections on it. You're at the polling place to do one thing. Most people don't want a camera in their face whenever they're casting their ballots. It's really important to respect other and others when you're there,” Catalano said.
Voters should remember to bring valid forms of photo IDs to polling locations. Those include drivers licenses, state IDs, passports, and military IDs.
“You want to make sure to check that your polling location has not switched at the last minute. You can find both of those things your sample ballot and your polling place on our website scvotes.com," Catalano said.