High Voter Turnout in SC Primary

YORK COUNTY, SC – Turnout in Saturday’s GOP primary could set a record in South Carolina.
“This is a huge election year. And I want to make sure that I can do my part,” says Tega Cay, SC resident Susan Axton.

“Ready to see the country in a different direction, so felt it was important to come out,” says Fort Mill, SC resident Doug Wright.

Election workers say they saw the highest number of voters early Saturday morning, but there was still a steady number of people all afternoon.

At Tega Cay Baptist Church on Gold Hill Road, turnout was over 25 percent.

“I think that’s pretty good. I think they said there was more than 500 people that had been through here and considering it’s a primary, I think that’s pretty good turnout,” Axton says.

And in Rock Hill, more than 400 people voted at Aldersgate United Methodist, a more than 20 percent turnout.

According to the State Election Commission, 59,000 people cast absentee ballots statewide. That’s twice the number from the last Republican primary in 2012.

Voters say they think that’s because of all the attention surrounding the GOP primary and the huge field of candidates.

Voter Ann Wheeler says, with six people left on the ballot, it made it tough for her to decide.

“It was. I narrowed them down by the ones I liked the least, and that left ones that were on the good side and I tried to pick the best candidate from there,” Wheeler says.