COLUMBIA, S.C. — Inside Fairfield County's Office of Elections, last minute work is underway to prepare for those heading to the polls on Tuesday.
Director Debby Stidham gets machines ready to be picked up by precinct leaders and packs bins full of election-day necessities.
"We make sure everything is running correctly, that everything is updated properly and then everything is sealed up and sent out," said Stidham.
According to Stidham, the county has about 99 poll workers set to help across 22 precincts. Although 2,800 Fairfield County voters already cast a ballot, she expects a strong turnout on election day.
"We are really expecting a lot of people to get out and vote," said Stidham. "We have some local races that there’s a lot of interest in– county council and school board."
Across the state, 3.4 million registered South Carolina voters will choose a U.S. Senator, a Superintendent of Education, a governor, and several other statewide offices.
South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Trav Robertson said the issue of abortion will drive more women to the polls.
"76,000 More women than men have already cast ballots, SO we're going to see if female voters are very angry at the fact that the Republicans are constantly trying to take away their freedom in the state," said Robertson.
Democrats in South Carolina haven’t won a statewide race in 16 years. There are Democratic candidates in just four of the eight races on ballots across South Carolina.
GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said issues like the economy, crime, and immigration are at the top of the list.
"Democrats have been doing their best to avoid those issues and talk about everything, but the things that are relevant to people right now. And the result is people paying attention to our candidates, we believe that they're going to get a bigger share of the vote than we normally see," said McKissick.
With a record number of voters casting a ballot early, the state election commission isn't expecting long lines at precincts.
"That's over 600,000 people who would be voting on Election Day now, they're already out of the way. So that'll certainly help out lines at your polling place," said John Catalano.
The 612,000 early ballots represent more than 18% of South Carolina's nearly 3.4 million registered voters.
Polls open at 7 a.m. Election Day and close at 7 p.m.