Record voter turnout reported in SC GOP primary; nearly 72K votes cast in Horry Co.

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WMBF) - There’s a new record high for voter turnout in the South Carolina GOP primary.

The South Carolina Elections Commission reported that 757,000 votes were cast in the Republican primary which eclipsed the previous record set in 2016, which was about 740,000 votes.

Horry County saw almost 72,000 people vote between early voting and Saturday’s primary day, beating its 2016 turnout by about 20,000 votes.

SC Votes showed that Horry County had nearly 30% of its registered voters come out during the primary, which elections leaders said they expected.

“With the rallies and things, you know, it got people excited,” said Horry County Voter Registration and Elections Director Sandy Martin. “With what’s going on in our world, you know, people are more interested now.”

Former President Donald Trump received more than double the votes in Horry County than former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Trump received almost 67% and Haley almost 33%.

Justin Vaughn, a political science professor at Coastal Carolina University, said some of the increased turnout can be attributed to Trump being on the ballot.

“I think the record turnout is a reflection of population growth, but also of just how galvanizing of a force Donald Trump is within Republican politics,” Vaughn explained. “There are a lot of people who are very excited to come out and show their support for President Trump, there are a lot of people who are very excited to come out and vote against President Trump.”

Trump won nearly every county in South Carolina, with about 60% of the overall vote.

Haley came out on top in only three counties throughout the state, Richland, Charleston and Beaufort. That list does not include Bamberg, which is where she grew up.

Vaughn said while Trump may have won the primary, Haley’s results are not nothing.

“I do think that the margin of victory was not as significant as we may have expected a week before,” said Vaughn. “A lot of the expectation was that he would win by over thirty points.”

Vaughn said while it’s extremely unlikely Haley will clinch the GOP nomination, there’s no real incentive for her to drop out of the race.

“I don’t think that staying in the race hurts her politically, it just continues to build name recognition,” Vaughn explained. “Name ID is currency in politics. The more people know you, the more they are able to like you.”

The GOP primary results are expected to be finalized later this week.

With the presidential primaries behind them, Horry County election leaders are starting to look forward to the next election, which is the state primary in June.

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