Horry County elections experts weigh in on the upcoming presidential election

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) – In just 21 days, people across the country will head to the polls to cast their vote for the next President of the United States.

Here at home, preparations are in full swing until November 5th.

“The office is full and the phones are ringing off the hook,” said Sandra Martin, Horry County Registration and Elections Director. “We have all the election equipment ready, we have all the supplies ready, so there is still a lot of work to do.”

Martin said since Hurricane Helene pushed back the state's voter registration deadline by two weeks, she has seen an increase in voter registration.

Still, Justin Vaughn, a political science professor at Coastal Carolina University, said he expects voter turnout in South Carolina to be similar to the 2020 election, which was at a percentage in the high 60s.

“We're not going to see the same turnout we see in some of the battleground states where the candidates spend a lot of time, do a lot of advertising and the race is really hotly contested. “I mean, we know how the presidential election is going to turn out here in South Carolina,” Vaughn said. “Most people who are going to the polls are not going to come to participate in a hard-fought race in South Carolina, but rather, you know, to do their civic duty.”

Vaughn added that he believes another similarity between this election and recent ones is voters' firm stance on their preferred candidates.

“Both campaigns seem to have very little ability this time, last time, to influence the share of the vote they will receive, even in this election, even in Clinton versus Trump in 2016 “We had assassinations, we had big ones Debates with unique performances,” Vaughn said.

But one difference Vaughn said he should pay attention to is the number of mail-in voters.

He said the number of absentees was higher because the last election was in the middle of the pandemic, and while he doesn't expect it to be as high this time, he believes it's still a sizeable one number will be.

And Martin confirmed this, saying postal voting was a popular request this time.

“Everyone is calling to get an absentee ballot and I think there are almost eleven thousand for that,” Martin said. “I just ask you to be patient because the girls are doing everything they can.”

Early voting begins exactly one week from today. For more information, see our guide to early voting.

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