Next year, South Carolinians will return to the polls to choose our state’s next governor. But just how many will actually show up to vote? If voter participation trends from the last decade are any indication, only about half of all registered voters will decide who will be placed in the Palmetto State’s highest executive seat.
According to statistics from the South Carolina Election Commission, overall voter participation in the 2014 gubernatorial election was 43%, the year Nikki Haley was elected governor. In 2018 and 2022, only 50% of all registered voters chose to head to the polls, installing Henry McMaster as Haley’s successor and securing his second term in office.
Interest in choosing our nation’s president seemed to drive more registered voters to the polls during that period. In 2016 when candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were calling on their supporters to cast their ballots, 67.9% of South Carolina’s registered voters heeded the call, helping to usher in Trump’s first term as chief executive.
When Joe Biden and Trump went toe-to-toe in 2020’s general election, S.C. voter participation leveled up to 72.1%. 3.1% more registered voters came to the polls in 2024, increasing the state’s overall participation to 75.2%.
And, while the state Election Commission does not track the participation of voters based on their political affiliations, it does keep a record of participation in party primaries based on the total number of registered voters in South Carolina, which is an open primary state, meaning any registered voter, no matter their party affiliation, can vote in either party primary, but they can only participate in one of the two. So, how did those numbers stack up?
In 2014, there were primary races for both Democrats and Republicans for the U.S. Senate featuring candidates Brad Hutto (D) and Lindsey Graham (R). In the Democratic party primary, 4.67% of all registered voters cast their vote, in the Republican party primary, participation was at 11.30%.
2016 saw two presidential primaries in South Carolina. On the Democratic ticket, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders squared off, and on the Republican side, there were nine candidates, which included Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. 24.9% of all registered voters in the state participated in the Republican primary, while 12.5% participated in the Democratic primary.
The ballots for Democratic and Republican candidates were heavy with contenders in both the gubernatorial and U.S. House primaries in 2018. To narrow down the selection, 8.15% of all registered voters in the state chose to participate in the Democratic primary, while 12.28 percent participated in the Republican primary.
In 2020, there were 10 candidates on the Democratic ticket who hoped to be selected by South Carolinians, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Pete Buttigieg. 15.7% of the state’s registered voters participated in that primary; there was no Republican primary that year as Donald Trump, the incumbent, was running for re-election and had no significant challengers.
There was much competition on the Democratic primary ballot for governor in 2022 and in the race for the U.S. Senate. On the Republican side, there was a handful of runoffs throughout the state’s districts. Participation that year saw 5.09% of all registered voters in South Carolina participating in the Democratic primary, while 10.15% voted in the Republican primary.
Next year, there will be several significant elections in the state of South Carolina, including the race for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, superintendent of education, comptroller general, all 124 seats in the House of Representatives, and some contests for the S.C. Senate, as well as local races for county sheriffs, clerks of court, and school boards. Will only an average of 10% of all voters in our state determine which candidates will land on the general ballot in 2026? And will only half of our state’s voters decide who will win in those general elections? Voter turnout next year will answer those two very important questions.
