SOUTH CAROLINA (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- It's the first year South Carolinians can cast their vote early for the presidential election.  "We are thrilled to see voters embracing the convenience of early voting, and we are anticipating a significant turnout for this election," said Howie Knapp, Executive Director of the State Election Commission. "We were prepared certainly for a large number. We've seen, again, what we learned from the other states just this last week, that they've seen large turnout," said Lancaster County Administrator Dennis Marstall. "So luckily, we have a lot of folks who are interested in being poll workers and volunteers. We've been doing lots of training, so we've been prepared and we're staffed up for the rest of this week." Lancaster County had more than 8,900 voters show up over the last three days. Chester County election officials say nearly 1,600 voters have participated so far in the early voting period. Winthrop University political science professor Scott Huffmon says one of the big reasons numbers are up is because of the 2020 election. Staffers for Harris campaign worried about falling behind in N.C., report says "There had been from the Trump side, in the Republican side, this idea that it wasn't as legitimate, that it somehow it might not be counted. But this time around, Trump is telling supporters (to) get out and vote any way you can, whether it's in person, early, whether it's by mail, just vote any way you can," he said.  Huffmon says early voting in South Carolina doesn't indicate how the race will turn out. In South Carolina, voters don't register by party. "One of the things you could do is look at early voting turnout in counties that were strong Republican or strong Democrat before. And you might be able to get a hint of how it's going," Huffmon said.  In January 2022, the South Carolina legislature approved a new congressional redistricting plan that reapportioned the state's seven congressional districts. Huffmon says it just solidifies how strongly Democratic or Republican a district is. "To the point that many state house or state senate races are uncontested. Over 40% of state senate races in South Carolina are completely uncontested. Only one candidate is running, that's how gerrymandered they are. It's over 50% for the state house. So that redistricting has really made a lot more uncompetitive legislative districts at the state level," Huffmon said.