By james art 
CHARLESTON, SC (WCIV) — Tuesday is Election Day and more than 1.5 million ballots have already been cast in South Carolina, making it a record early voting period, according to election officials.
Mark Owens, a professor of political science at The Citadel, said there may not have been many younger voters at the polls during early voting, but he expects a large portion of the younger generation to vote Tuesday.
He said this vote is important to younger generations for several reasons, one of which is that young voters have been aware of this election for a long time, noting that social media and news coverage have made this election something of a “ ever present” for young voters.
Owens also said younger generations voting is important in terms of getting people involved in civic engagement.
Last month, The Citadel conducted a survey of nearly 2,500 registered voters in South Carolina and Georgia. 72% of voters who participated in the survey were under 25 years of age.
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“The only parts that they’ve shown to be a little hesitant about are the things that they first learn about when they go to vote, and that’s where to go, right? So Election Day looks more certain,” Owens said.
“The other thing is that when it comes to confidence in elections, young voters are confident that their ballots will be cast.” They just kind of are, which could be the fact that they haven’t seen the process before and haven’t felt involved in it. So in that case, as they can vote electronically and see the process of how much the counties care about their votes and make sure they’re counted and reported, I think we’re going to continue to see a lot more confidence in the government going forward,” he added.
Owens said another reason there may be large numbers of young voters at the polls is what he says are politically termed “late decisions.”
“Voters ages 18-24 believe more than any other age group in South Carolina that this election has a chance of being close, especially compared to the past,” he explained. “They may believe that Donald Trump is going to win the election in South Carolina, but they think it’s going to be a close one.” And that’s something that usually creates a lot of competition if they think their candidate has a chance to win. And it depends on whether their vote matters, young voters believing that this is not a landslide or a failed election in the state.”