Election HQ
Download our “Vote Creative” graphic to use on social media during election season!
2024 Voting
South Carolina has open primaries to determine candidates for the general election, meaning you can choose to vote in either party’s primary – but not in both.
- May 12th: Voter Registration Deadline
- May 31st: Absentee Ballot Request Deadline
- May 28th – June 7th: Early Voting
- May 26th: Voter Registration Deadline
- June 14th: Absentee Ballot Request Deadline
- June 29th – 21st: Early Voting
- EXTENDED: October 14th: Voter Registration Deadline
- October 25th: Absentee Ballot Request Deadline
- October 21st – November 2nd: Early Voting
Candidates
At the State House, all 124 House seats and all 46 Senate seats are up for election. Voters will also decide on the next US President, all 7 Congressional seats for our State, as well as a variety of candidates for local elections.
Thanks to the Arts Action Fund, you can look up every candidate on your ballot, including campaign websites and contact information at the link above.
Arts Action Fund provides additional resources, including Congressional Arts Report Cards and Candidate Surveys.
DEBATES
Presidential Debate (Harris/Trump): September 10th, ABC
The campaigns have agreed to one additional debate TBA
Vice Presidential Debate (Walz/Vance): October 1st, CBS
Nonprofits and Elections
Here’s the rundown on what nonprofit organizations can and can’t do when it comes to elections. Thanks to our friends at ArtsNC for putting this together!
Election “Don’ts” For Nonprofit Organizations
- CANNOT endorse or give the appearance of endorsement of any candidate or political party
- CANNOT coordinate with any candidate or any campaign
- CANNOT contribute organization funds to a candidate or campaign
- CANNOT share your organization’s mailing list with political campaigns
- CANNOT do anything for any ONE candidate that you have not done for ALL candidates for each office
- CANNOT invite an incumbent or candidate to your activities and announce their candidacy
Election “Dos” For Nonprofit Organizations
- Create candidate surveys on the issues that are important to you.
- Submit questions to candidate forums or debates.
- Host your own candidate forums focused on the arts (as long as you included all candidates for a particular race).
- Host a voter drive at an arts event, or a “Get Out the Vote” campaign, to ensure that creative voices are represented in every election.
Staff and Board Members:
- CAN support candidates for office, being certain not to imply they are speaking on behalf of your nonprofit
- CAN donate personal money and volunteer for campaigns on their own time
- CANNOT use any of the nonprofits resources (website, events, publications) to help a campaign.
News + Other Resources
It’s important to stay plugged in throughout election season, and we’ve provided some resources to help.
Federal Elections
Here is a list of news sites that you can peruse regularly to get a complete picture of election coverage.
Politico>>
NPR Politics>>
The Hill>>
Pro-Tip: Read everything you can, and don’t just read stories you agree with. Broaden your horizon.
Real Clear Politics>>
We’re big fans of RCP. It’s all pure data – no news, no spin, not even a lot of commentary. You can get lost in this site, it’s great. They also have Senate, House, and Governor race polling data when available. Also a great site to watch results roll in on election day.
Pro-Tip: focus on poll averages, not specific polls, to get clearest picture.
Gallup>>
Viewed as the “gold standard” in political polling, Gallup is a single polling firm, not a mix of polls. But their scientific method and consistency in good polling structure are well respected. We list this one so that you get an idea of what a “good poll” is.
Pro-Tip: Those “quick hit” polls after debates are not scientific in nature and have a lot of flaws, so it’s always best to let the pros, like those at Gallup, get the real data a few days after the debate.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball>>
Larry Sabato’s team at the University of Virginia have an excellent model for their predictions. They back it up with links to specific polling data and give a great breakdown of what changed over the last few weeks in their predictions, and distill what some of the polling data means for each candidate.
Make Your Own: 270toWin>>
Try your hand at creating your own electoral map results with this tool. It also allows you to share your map or embed it in your own website.
State House Elections
Here are links to statewide news sources you may want to keep up with:
The State>> (Columbia)
SC Daily Gazette>>
The Greenville News>>
Post & Courier>> (Charleston)
Aiken Standard>>
The Herald>> (Rock Hill)
It’s important to note that no one really does minute by minute coverage of statehouse races across the state at this time. You’ll have to peruse each resource frequently to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Real Clear Politics>>
Aside from the Presidential stuff, RCP also has Senate, House, and Governor race polling data when available. Also a great site to watch results roll in on election day.
Pro-Tip: focus on poll averages, not specific polls, to get clearest picture.
BallotPedia>>
A great resource for everyone to bookmark. They list every statehouse race and have profiles on every candidate including relevant news stories. Take it with a grain of salt though – content is computer generated based on what’s public online, so while the information on the candidate may be correct (pulled from campaign website), some of the news articles are not really relevant, they just have some of the same key words. Still, an excellent resource for statehouse races.
Buzz @ The State>>
The political blog from The State newspaper does a great job covering the statehouse and elections.
SCIWAY>>
A great resource for all things South Carolina. Their Elections section has links to voter registration info, candidate listings, and more.
SCVotes>>
The state’s online election commission website. If you have a question about an election, at any level, the answers are here.
Pro-Tip: As election results roll in, you can track them here. You can also download post-election data.
Local County Election Office Websites
Be sure to check out your local county election website for specific election data. Post-election data is also posted there before anywhere else, so you can dig into polling results as they roll in to the office.
