COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tuesday, voters in South Carolina had a chance to go to the polls to cast ballots in primaries for a range of races, from the U.S. House to the state legislature and on down to local races for sheriff, county council, and other offices. But apparently, not a lot of people took the opportunity to take part.
With over three million registered voters in the Palmetto State, only 13 percent cast their ballot in the primary, or about 439,000 voters. That's down from 17 percent in 2022, which is over 120,000 fewer ballots cast. That's despite a rise in early voting that outpaced two years ago.
However, this year's primary did not feature a statewide race, meaning some voters may have not had a race to cast a ballot in, depending on which county they live in and which political party they affiliate with.
One of the most watched races in the Midlands was the Democratic State Senate District 26 primary race. Russell Ott was victorious over Dick Harpootlian by only 120 votes. When all was said and done, only 4700 voters showed up to cast ballots in Senate District 26.
Dr. Scott Huffmon is a professor of political science at Winthrop University. Huffmon says national politics played a big part in local election low turnout.
“These tight races are a combination of intra party fighting and lower turnout,” said Huffmon. “Just between the Hunter Biden conviction and the Trump conviction people are really getting turned off by politics even as the core supporters are getting fired up.”
Another big race of interest was in the Lowcountry where U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace won the 1st Congressional District Republican nomination, this time with the support of former President Donald Trump.
“She had Trump's endorsement this time she did not have it in a previous one and she was a head of her opponent pretty handily so again that tells you a lot about the nature of the Republican Party,” said Hoffman. “At this time it is still very much Trump's party but that doesn’t mean we don’t see some upsets at the lower level that are not expected.”
Many races in the Midlands ended in runoffs which will be taking place on June 25. As a reminder, if you voted in a primary last Tuesday, you can only vote in the runoff for the same party you voted for on June 11.