South Carolina shatters one-day early voting record by 10,000 ballots

Nov. 4 (UPI) -- South Carolina has broken its one-day early voting record by some 10,000 ballots, state officials said.

The South Carolina Election Commission said in a statement Thursday that a record nearly 50,000 ballots were cast a day prior at early voting centers, lifting the number of South Carolinians to have voted early in this month's mid-term election to 383,000.

"With three days left of early voting totals remaining to report, the SEC expects pre-election day turnout to continue to rise significantly," it said.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after election officials announced that voters had set a new one-day record for early voting with some 40,000 people casting ballots on Oct. 24, nearly doubling the previous record set on June 10 during the primary elections.

State election officials added that of the 63,000 absentee ballots issued, some 48,000 have already been returned.

Including the returned absentee ballots, 431,000 South Carolinians have voted early in the upcoming election, it said.

Early voting for the Tuesday election in South Carolina ends Saturday.