Bamberg County runoff voters get only two days of early voting

Bamberg County runoff voters will get just two chances to cast an early ballot before the June 23 runoff, and both days fall before Juneteenth closes the schedule again. Early voting will be open only Wednesday, June 17, and Thursday, June 18, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., leaving no early-voting option on Friday, June 19.

That compressed window matters because the statewide runoff will settle Republican nominations for governor, attorney general and commissioner of agriculture. The South Carolina Election Commission said the holiday forces a narrower schedule than voters saw in the primary, when early voting ran from May 26 through June 5 on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The commission’s March 4 memo said early voting centers must not be open on Sundays or legal holidays. It also withdrew 2024 guidance that had required counties to stay open on Juneteenth, after clarifying that Juneteenth now counts as a legal holiday because it is recognized by state or federal law. That change leaves election administrators with less flexibility and gives voters fewer days to work around jobs, travel and family schedules.

Bamberg County’s June election notice said any necessary runoffs will be held Tuesday, June 23, 2026. The county’s notice listed early voting centers in its June election period at the Brooker Center in Denmark and the J. Carl Kearse Agricultural Building in Bamberg, and it directed voters to check their assigned polling place at scVOTES.gov before Election Day.

The same county notice listed seven Election Day precinct polling places, including Hunters Chapel Fire Department, Ehrhardt Town Hall, Colston Fire Station, Brooker Center, Govan Fire Department, Little Swamp Community Center, Olar Town Hall and the Bamberg City Civic Center. It also scheduled examination of absentee ballot return envelopes at 9 a.m. on the day of the runoff and a provisional-ballot canvass hearing for Thursday, June 25.

The practical result is simple: anyone in Bamberg County who plans to vote before the runoff needs to fit that plan into a two-day stretch, not a week. With Juneteenth cutting off early voting on June 19, the margin for confusion is gone, and the deadline is fixed.