Horry County sees surge in voter interest ahead of midterm elections

HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - With general elections just two weeks away, there’s been a surge in voter registration for the midterms in state of South Carolina. That includes Horry County where elections officials say they’ve seen an increase in voter interest.

The number of registered voters in South Carolina doubled ahead of this midterm election compared to previous midterm elections. Numbers from the South Carolina State Election Commission show more than 90,000 people registered to vote in just the last four months leading up to the deadline. That’s compared to the roughly 43,000 who registered to vote during the same time frame ahead of the last midterm elections four years ago.

In Horry County alone, there were nearly 4,000 new registrations from the months of July through September.

Director of Horry County Registration and Election Sandy Martin says it’s been busy in the weeks so far leading up to the midterms, and says she anticipates voter turnout to be at around 50%—as compared to the roughly 39% in 2014.

In Horry County, of the nearly 4,200 absentee ballots issued by mail, more than half are already returned so far, not including in-person absentee voting. With important races on the ballot including South Carolina’s governor and other statewide offices, Director of Horry County Voter Registration and Elections Sandy Martin says they’ve already been seeing high numbers during absentee voting.

“It started off with a bang. It was really busy the first day and it’s been really busy ever since. We’ve already voted about 2,100 people in person plus the 4,000 we’ve mailed out so it’s looking to be a high number,” said Martin.

Absentee voting will continue through November 5th, the day before the midterms. The two ways you can vote absentee if eligible are through mail or in person at the Horry County Voter Registration and Elections office.

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