COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the clock ticks down to Election Day, the Lexington County Office of Elections is a hive of activity. Election Director Lenice Shoemaker and her team are hard at work ensuring that everything is in place for the upcoming elections.
"We're preparing for our big day tomorrow. It'll be an exciting day," said Director Lenice Shoemaker.
In a bustling scene, Director Shoemaker can be seen overseeing the loading of voting machines and bins full of election-day necessities into the cars of election clerks.
"We've got already 20 so far. And so I think we have 39. And so it's getting down to the wire," said Shoemaker about the last-minute preparations.
"I started preparing for this election in December of last year because there were so many precincts, and there's so much work involved when it comes to the municipalities," she added.
According to SC Votes, there are 217 local elections taking place across the state on Tuesday.
In Richland County, Director Travis Alexander reports that 1,000 voters have already cast their ballots early. On Monday, his team began the process of opening the outer envelopes of absentee ballots.
"Tomorrow, we're doing in our envelope. So looking at those, we were under 200. So that, in comparison to a state election, will get you, you know, 10,000 to 15,000," Director Alexander explained.
While voter turnout is traditionally lower in local elections, Alexander states that the phone lines are busy with questions from concerned citizens.
"We want to make sure that if the voters are registered in one of the city municipality elections, they know exactly where to go tomorrow between 7 am and 7 pm," he emphasized.
Both counties said that they are fully staffed with poll workers to ensure a smooth voting process.
Polls open at 7 a.m. on Election Day and close at 7 p.m.