Early voting is off to a big start in South Carolina.

Statewide, 285,831 people cast ballots through the first seven days ahead of the Nov. 8 general election. Early voting continues through Nov. 5.

The state, which instated excuse-free early voting in May, tallied a total of 100,450 early voters through 11 days ahead of the June primaries (losing one day from the allotted two-week period to the Memorial Day holiday).

In Lexington County, the increase from the primaries has been sharper. 14,202 people in the county voted early through the first seven days ahead of the general election, with five more to go. 3,353 people voted early in the county throughout the entire two weeks ahead of the June primaries — a number that the county had already tripled after just five days ahead of the general election.

There are a variety of factors influencing these spikes in early voting. 

A big one is that this is a general election. Turnout for general elections “is historically always much higher than in the primary,” said John Michael Catalano, who handles outreach and voter education for the State Election Commission.

But the evolving rollout of early voting in South Carolina is also having an impact.

“Early voting wasn't implemented in South Carolina until mid-May,” Catalano said. “That was about three weeks before the very first early voting period for the June primary. So there was about three weeks to get early voting established, implemented, everybody trained up and then get the word out to voters. It's a pretty tight time frame to do all of that. So I think one thing that helps is just having enough time for counties to get the word out, for us to get the word out to voters.”

Lenice Shoemaker, Lexington County’s director of registration and elections, also emphasized the importance of having more time to let voters know about early voting.

“I thought the primaries would really be better, but I think ... this is better now that the word is getting out,” she said. “People are really understanding what early voting is about and that people can come and vote curbside if they need to. It's really grown into something that's a whole lot better than it has been before.”

One aspect of early voting impacted by the tight time frame ahead of the primaries was the number of locations.

Lexington County went from one early voting location for the primaries to five ahead of the general election. 

And it’s not the only county to see an uptick in the number of locations met with a big increase in the number of early voters. Charleston County, which went from one location to seven, has seen 32,039 early voters through the first seven days (compared to 6,464 throughout primary early voting). Spartanburg County, which went from one location to three, has seen 13,109 early voters through the first seven days (compared to 2,329 throughout primary early voting).

“I don't think it's a stretch to say that opening more locations throughout the county will offer more access to voters and allow more voters to vote early,” Catalano said.

The numbers in Lexington County back this up. While 7,918 of the county’s early votes through the first seven days went through the county Voter Registration and Elections Office in Lexington, the lone early voting site for the primaries, 2,586 went through the Harbison campus of Midlands Technical College in Irmo and 2,430 went through the West Columbia Community Center. 

The Pelion Branch Library’s 550 early voters through the first seven days compares favorably to the town’s population (631) — and better than the Batesburg-Leesville campus of Midlands Tech (718 early voters compared to a town population of 5,270).

Shoemaker sees evidence in these numbers that spreading out locations is helping more people early vote but also that there’s still work to do when it comes to educating the public on where and when they can do so.

“I think by us being able to get people a little closer to home, I think that they're able to go, 'I can go ahead and vote now,’” she said, adding the new locations give more county residents the chance to vote on their way home from work or on their lunch break.

In addition to boosting voter turnout, she’s hopeful getting more people voting early can reduce stress on precincts during election day.

“My hopes are that the precincts are bored slack to death, because I want to get them all [voting] now,” she joked.

Early voting continues though Nov. 5 (8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.) at five locations in Lexington County:

• County Voter Registration and Elections Office, 605 West Main St., Room 130, Lexington
• Midlands Technical College (Batesburg-Leesville Campus), 423 College St., Batesburg-Leesville
• Midlands Technical College (Harbison Campus), 7300 College St., Irmo
• Pelion Branch Library, 206 Pine St., Pelion
• West Columbia Community Center, 754 B. Ave., West Columbia