South Carolina had its Municipal Election Day on Nov. 4, with hundreds of local elections taking place across the state.
Greer voters saw races for City Council on their ballots, and some voted on the House District 21 special primary runoff. According to Conway Belangia, the Greenville County Director of Voter Registration and Elections, Greer had a 9.43% voter turnout rate on the Greenville County side of the city for the City Council races.
Belangia says that this is a pretty typical rate historically, with most municipal elections garnering 8-12% of voters if there is no mayor on the ballot. In races with a mayor, this turnout rate typically approaches the 20% category.
Greer has 16 precincts in Greenville County, with turnout rates varying amongst them. Belangia says there are a few factors that may influence this, such as the election’s media coverage or whether a seat is contested.
“Where you have contested races, you may have a little bit more of a turnout than in the uncontested areas,” Belangia said. “A couple of our precincts were in the mid-to-higher-mid teens, and then some of them were down to around six [percent].”
One of the precincts with the highest voter turnout rate in Greer was the Frohawk precinct, which is the area north of Wade Hampton Boulevard near Buncombe Road. Here, the voter turnout rate was 26%, but Belangia says that this number is slightly misleading, as the precinct is one of the smaller ones in the city. Only 198 people came out to vote in the precinct.
The size of the race also matters when it comes to voter turnout, with national and state elections typically receiving more attention. “Money talks,” Belangia notes, and candidates who are able to spend more of their time and money on campaigning will typically garner more voters.
“Numbers jump up and down based on where some candidates may have gone door-to-door, or targeted some precincts,” Belangia said. “And in small elections like these, it's not difficult to influence a precinct.”
A prime example of this is the recent House District 21 special primary runoff, which some Greer voters saw on their ballots on Nov. 4. This election resulted in a full recount, as the winning candidate, Dianne Mitchell, narrowly won by 20 votes. Greer’s 16 precincts had a voter turnout rate of 10.65% for this race.
As a part of this recount, the Greenville County Election Commission conducted an audit of three polling locations, selected at random by the state Board of Elections. One of these included the Maple Creek precinct in Greer. All locations passed the audit, and the recount came back with the exact same vote tally.
Belangia says that situations like this are what make voter turnout so crucial in these more localized elections.
“We always encourage people to participate in elections, because a few votes can make a difference,” he said. “As seen in the runoff for House District 21, a few votes did make the difference.”
For more information on the Greenville County Elections Commission, visit their website.
Follow Breanna Laws on X @GreerByBreanna
