Voter confusion at Horry County polls only blip on smooth Election Day, officials say.

Less than an hour after polls opened at 7 a.m. in South Carolina, a line of voters were already assembled in a corridor at South Conway Elementary School, and its parking lot was quickly filling up.

“It’s been like this since we started,” an Horry County election official said. With temperatures in the mid-60s and coming off a huge early voting surge that saw more than 52,000 people cast ballots, that momentum seemed to carry over to Election Day itself.

Statewide, more 400,000 people took advantage of a two-week early voting window, state election officials said.

With competitive races for statewide offices including governor and state superintendent of education, a Trump-backed Congressional candidate in Russell Fry and four General Assembly House races, interest in the 2022 midterms was high for Grand Strand residents.

“Tonight, our country is going see a massive shift either way,” Tina Corley said outside the First Baptist Church in downtown Myrtle Beach.

Corley said she was confident that Fry would have an easy night. The 37-year-old Surfside Beach attorney ousted U.S. Rep. Tom Rice in a bruising primary that hinged on Rice’s decision to vote Trump’s impeachment shortly after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

“After the primary, I changed ‘Russell Fry’ in my phone contacts to ‘Congressman Fry,’” Corley said.

A short distance away at the General Robert H. Reed Recreation Center, Myrtle Beach resident Mark Chapman said he was backing Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. Down ticket races. He wasn’t as interested in the down-ticket contests.

“I’ve met these people,” Chapman said. “All they’re trying to do, for some of them, it’s a stepping stone for the next level.”

Horry County elections chief Sandy Martin told The Sun News few issues were seen at the polls, but there was confusion over a precinct split in the large Jet Port area.

Some voters who showed up to the recreation center were redirected nearby to 950 Crabtree Lane.

Timothy Gibbs, a clerk at the polling station, said the precinct used to be one location but is now three this year, which could have resulted in the mix-up. Gibbs added that voters were sent the correct address.

“People are coming here and not looking at their cards,”Gibbs said. “I’ve been dealing with it all morning.”

Barbara Faheya, a voter who was redirected, said it was an inconvenience.

I don’t mind, I’m not working, I take any time off, but it’s a challenge,”Faheya said. “We don’t really have a complaint, it was just an inconvenience. We wanna vote.”

Sun News reporter Caroline Williamson contributed to this story.

This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 11:57 AM.