Voters line up at Calhoun Academy of the Arts in Anderson before polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Paul Hyde/Special to the SC Daily Gazette)
Voters choosing Donald Trump or Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election did not always guarantee a vote for Republicans or Democrats in South Carolina’s Statehouse races.
Many Election Day polling places saw a steady stream of voters, even after more than 1.5 million South Carolinians — nearly half of all registered voters in the state — opted to vote early this year.
Among those casting their ballot Tuesday on the final day of voting was Tim Canty, a 57-year-old pastor.
In northeast Richland County, an area that’s been a Democratic stronghold, Canty voted for Harris in the presidential race.
The retired Army sergeant said funding for Social Security and veterans’ benefits were among the issues most important to him. When it comes to Harris, Canty is most impressed by her proposals to help small businesses and first-time homebuyers.
“Her care for people in the middle and lower class — she’s more vested in being able to touch their lives,” he said.
But when it came time to choose a candidate running to fill the seat being vacated by Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, who decided not to seek re-election after 12 years in office, Canty split his ticket.
He voted for Republican Mike Jones, a lieutenant colonel in the Army and gun shop owner.
While Canty did not name specific issues that turned him to Jones, he did say taxes and education were among other issues that motivate him as a voter.
Jones ran on a platform of cutting taxes and supporting school choice, believing the state constitution should be amended to specify that parents are in charge of their children’s education.
The booms of ordinance explosions could be heard from nearby Fort Jackson as Kelvin Dougan stepped out of the polling place at Oak Grove Baptist Church in rural Richland County.
The 35-year-old, who works for the Veterans Administration, stopped in to cast his vote for Harris. It was her promise to help first-time homebuyers that swayed him as he hopes to soon purchase his own first home.
While Dougan voted for the Democratic presidential candidate, he also cast votes for Republicans in some of the down-ballot races.
“Each side has good to it,” he said.
“I feel like the Republicans are straight shooters while the Democrats sometimes talk in circles,” Dougan added.
For 55-year-old state lottery worker Lee O. Smith, the election was less about policies than about the candidates themselves. He voted straight-ticket Democrat on Tuesday, something he doesn’t typically do. But he didn’t feel Trump had the character to be president, which made him decide to go all-in for the Democratic Party, he said.
“We all need to do what we can to make a change,” Smith said after voting in Columbia’s Rosewood neighborhood. “I don’t want another four years of Trump.”
Terry Atkins, a teacher in his 60s, said he was glad to get voting over with after a stressful election season. He leans Democratic but is willing to vote Republican if he likes a candidate.
This year, though, he voted for Harris because he was concerned Trump would reduce benefits such as Social Security payments, and because of the chaos Trump might bring to the White House.
“I don’t want four years of waking up worrying what the president is going to do,” Atkins said.
Takeia Wright, a 29-year-old manufacturing technician, said she doesn’t usually pay a lot of attention to politics. But when her coworkers told her about the differences between plans for Trump and Harris’ administrations, she decided to vote for Harris. There was no single issue that decided the race for her — just generally, she agreed more with Harris’ policies, she said.
“I’m trying to do my part,” Wright said. “It took a lot of thought.”
Trump voters
While some of those voting for Harris opted to support Republicans in down-ballot races, Trump supporters who spoke to the SC Daily Gazette often voted a straight Republican ticket.
Carmen Novellas, a 70-year-old retired high school teacher who opposes abortion, has always voted Republican, but “especially today because of the Democrats’ stance on abortion,” she said outside her Columbia polling location.
She also agrees with Trump’s stricter policies on immigration, she said.
Audra Dowell, a 56-year-old Realtor and jewelry store owner, and her mother Barbara Gredmintas, an 84-year-old retired high school math teacher, cast their votes at Catawba Elementary School in northeast Richland County.
For the two Republican voters, immigration and the economy were the motivating issues.
“At the grocery store, I hear people complaining about how prices are up and down every aisle,” Gredmintas said. “I’m afraid we’ll continue to have the same thing if Kamala (Harris) is elected.”
“As a small business owner, I can tell the difference in the last for years,” said Dowell, who also voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. “I just don’t feel comfortable with the state of the U.S. right now. Something has to change.”
In Lexington County, 39-year-old Ashley Dennis also indicated that immigration and the economy are why she backed Trump, though she said she generally sides with Republicans.
Dennis, who works at a dog boarding facility, said she hopes Trump can finish a wall along the southern border with Mexico. “And I would like to be able to go to the grocery store without crying,” she said.
Cathy Kemmerlin, of rural Calhoun County, was a Trump voter who backed a Democrat as her state senator.
“Good person, good family,” she said of state Rep. Russell Ott, who’s running for the Senate seat opened by the retirement of Nikki Setzler, a West Columbia Democrat who ran for 48 years as a “caring conservative.” Like Ott, she lives in St. Matthews.
The 69-year-old retiree said she votes for person, not party. “That’s the way everybody should vote.”
Election Day did not always go smoothly for some of those trying to vote.
Dee Wlise was disappointed when she learned she would not be able to cast her vote Tuesday. It would have been the first time the 23-year-old enlisted U.S. Army soldier had voted in a presidential election, but she had not changed her voter registration over from Georgia to South Carolina.
She said she wished the state and Fort Jackson Army Base had been more proactive in informing soldiers like herself who move around a lot between posts about the steps they needed to take to get registered.
“This was a pretty intense election and I had really wanted to get my vote and my voice out there to be heard,” she said.
Upstate voters
Like fans at a rock concert, voters began lining up an hour before polls opened at the Calhoun Academy of the Arts in Anderson. A slight mist didn’t seem to deter anyone.
Oleg Nechitaylo, 39, who owns a cobbler business in Anderson, said he arrived at 6:50 a.m. and waited about 40 minutes to cast a ballot.
“I voted for Donald J. Trump,” Nechitaylo said. “I’m concerned about inflation and the economy. I support what Donald Trump says — not all, but most of what he says.”
Ronny Bartrum, 42, who works second shift at a Greenville manufacturing plant, said he was concerned about high taxes and immigration. He also voted for Trump.
Joey Preston, 61, said it took him only 10 minutes to vote at Midway Elementary School for Harris and other Democrats, including Bryan Best for the District 3 congressional seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan.
“It was a smooth experience,” said Preston, the administrator for Bamberg County who lives in Anderson. “The poll workers were very helpful and professional. I thanked them
for their service.”
SC Daily Gazette reporters Abraham Kenmore and Skylar Laird contributed to this report. Paul Hyde contributed from the Upstate.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.