Daniel Prince
Early voting taking the place of in-person absentee
On Friday, Governor Henry McMaster signed into law legislation passed by the General Assembly that establishes early voting in South Carolina. To help prepare for the upcoming June 14 primaries, the SC Election Commission wants voters to know their options.
On Election Day, you can still cast your ballot from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at your precinct’s polling place. If you are not sure where that is, you can check it online at scvotes.gov. Bring your photo ID or voter registration card with you when you go to vote.
In-person absentee voting has now been replaced with a two-week early voting period. Any voter can visit an early-voting location in their county and vote like they would at their polling place on Election Day. For the June primaries, the early voting period will run from Tuesday, May 31, through Friday, June 10, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Early voting will be closed for the weekend of June 4-5. Early voting can be done at the county Voter Registration and Elections office. Any additional early voting locations will be determined by the counties and posted to scvotes.gov no later than May 24. If runoffs are needed in any of the races, early voting for the runoffs will go from June 22-24.
Bring your photo ID or voter registration card with you for early voting, as well. Absentee voting will now take place by mail only. Qualified absentee voters include voters with disabilities; voters 65 or older; members of the Armed Forces and Merchant Marines of the US, their spouses, and dependents residing with them; voters admitted to hospitals as emergency patients on the day of an election or within a four-day period before the election; and voters who can’t vote in-person on any day of the early voting period or Election Day due to employment obligations, attending to sick or physically disabled persons, confined to jail or pretrial facility pending disposition of an arrest or trial; or absent from their county for any reason.
Those needing an absentee ballot must request an absentee application by phone, mail, or in person at the voter registration office. They must complete, sign, and return the application to the voter registration office by mail or in person. Old applications will be accepted through May 31. After that, only new applications meeting current requirements will be accepted. The deadline to return a new application is June 3. You will then receive the absentee ballot by mail. Vote and return the ballot by mail or in person to the voter registration office by no later than 7 p.m. on Election Day.
For more information, call the Union County Voter Registration office at 429-1616.