Want to vote? When to register, where to vote & what to know for Horry County in 2022
The consequential June 14 primary elections are just a month away.
Voters this spring will head to the polls to cast ballots for candidates for Congress, Governor, Horry County Council, the Horry County Board of Education and more.
Here’s everything you need to know:
How do I register to vote, and when is the deadline?
The deadline to register to vote, if you want to register in-person, is tomorrow, Friday, May 13.
If you want to register via fax or email, you must submit your registration by Sunday, May 15 by midnight.
And if you’d rather mail in your voter registration, you must have that letter postmarked by Monday, May 16.
The voter registration form to submit via email, fax or in person can be found here.
If you choose to drop your completed form off in person, you can do so at Horry County’s Voter Registration Election Complex in Conway located at 1515 4th Avenue.
Voters must have a valid South Carolina driver’s license or DMV ID to register.
In-person absentee voting has now been replaced with a two-week early voting period, according to a Friday news release. Any voter can visit an early-voting location in their county and vote like they would at their polling place on Election Day.
Early voting for June primaries will be Tuesday, May 31 to Friday, June 10. Closed Saturday and Sunday, June 4 to 5. Early voting will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Who can I vote for?
2022 is what’s called a midterm election year, meaning voters will cast ballots for members of Congress this year.
Everyone living in Horry County is part of South Carolina’s 7th Congressional District.
The incumbent in that race is U.S. Rep. Tom Rice. He is facing numerous challengers including state Rep. Russell Fry, school board chairman Ken Richardson, Dr. Garrett Barton, Barbara Arthur, Mark McBride and Spencer Morris.
Midterm election years also mean that Gov. Henry McMaster and other statewide offices like Attorney General are up for re-election. Some lawmakers in the state House of Representatives are also up for re-election this year.
Due to the 2020 U.S. Census and the redistricting process that followed, Horry County has gained a seat in the Statehouse. That’s the newly-drawn District 61 in the center of the county. The candidates for that seat are Carla Schuessler and John Cassidy.
Also, because state Rep. Russell Fry is running for Congress, his Statehouse seat is open, too. Bruce Bailey, Howard Barnard, Val Guest and Brian Sweeney are running for that seat.
Voters will also cast ballots for the Chairman of Horry County Council as well as the Chairman of the school board.
Incumbent Horry County Chairman Johnny Gardner is running for re-election and is facing Johnny Vaught, Mark Lazarus and Katrina Morrison.
Richardson, because he is running for Congress, is not seeking re-election for school board chairman. The candidates for that position are David Cox, Darrell Ricketts and Helen Mason Smith.
A full list of all candidates can be found here.
To see a sample of what your ballot will look like, visit SCVotes.gov.
Where do I vote?
Voters can find their voting precinct if they don’t already know it on the state’s election website.
If you know where your polling precinct is, you can check to see if it’s changed via Horry County’s database of precincts.
Martin on Thursday noted that two voting precincts have changed. The Sea Oats 2 precinct in Myrtle Beach has merged into the Sea Oats 1 precinct.
The Jackson Bluff precinct has also moved, from the Sweetwater Branch Baptist Church to the Centenary United Methodist Church.
How do I vote?
Horry County uses a combination of paper ballots and electronic tallying.
The voting machines are manufactured by the firm ES&S, which operates nationwide.
Voters mark their selections on a computer screen, the machine prints out a paper ballot for the voter to review and then the voter scans the ballot back into the machine. Then the votes are counted on Election Day.
Martin on Thursday warned members of the county Voter Registration & Election Commission that she had heard from some residents who said they planned to show up to vote in person and would demand to vote via all-paper ballot.
Martin said if those individuals refuse to vote using the voting machines, they will not be able to vote at all.
More information on ES&S’s voting machines can be found here.
Additionally, unlike recent elections, voters will not be provided sanitary swabs and disinfecting wipes to interact with the voting machines’ touch screens. They will have to use their fingers.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 1:00 AM.
