Rains voters are served by the Marion County Voter Registration and Elections Office, located at 101 Court Street, Marion, SC 29571, phone (843) 423-8235. Operating under the Marion County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, this office handles all aspects of voter registration, election administration, absentee voting, and polling place assignments for Rains residents and everyone else in Marion County. South Carolina residents can register to vote online at scVOTES.gov, the official state voter registration portal managed by the South Carolina Election Commission.
The registration deadline is 30 days before any election. Applicants must be U.S. Citizens, at least 18 years old by the date of the election, residents of South Carolina and the county in which they register, and not under a court order declaring them mentally incompetent. A South Carolina driver's license or ID card number is required for online registration. Because Rains is an unincorporated community, there are no municipal elections for mayor or town council. Residents vote in county, state, and federal elections instead. Marion County holds elections for County Council, Sheriff, Coroner, Clerk of Court, Treasurer, Auditor, Register of Deeds, and other constitutional officers on partisan ballots during even-numbered years. School board elections may be held in odd-numbered years depending on district. To find their assigned polling place, residents can use the polling place lookup tool at scVOTES.gov/find-my-polling-place by entering their address, or they can contact the Marion County Elections Office directly. There is no U.S.Current federal, state, and local election schedules, ballot contests, candidate filings, and certified results for Rains voters are published by the South Carolina State Election Commission (https://scvotes.gov/). All seven U.S. State legislative races for the South Carolina House of Representatives (all 124 seats, two-year terms) and South Carolina Senate (all 46 seats are elected to four-year terms in 2024, so no regular Senate elections in 2026 unless there are special elections) will also appear. Marion County voters will elect county constitutional officers whose terms expire in 2026, potentially including Sheriff, Clerk of Court, and County Council seats depending on district and staggered terms. South Carolina election records that are public include voter registration lists (available by request from county election offices with restrictions on use for commercial purposes), campaign finance reports filed with the South Carolina Ethics Commission (searchable at ethics.sc.gov), candidate filings and ballot information, and precinct-level election results published by the State Election Commission. South Carolina offers absentee voting for voters who meet specific criteria including age 65 or older, physical disability, members of the armed forces, persons confined to a jail or pre-trial facility pending disposition of arrest or trial, government employees serving outside their county on Election Day, election workers, and individuals with a death or funeral of a family member within a three-day period before the election. Absentee ballot applications must be submitted to the Marion County Voter Registration and Elections Office by 5:00 p.m. The Friday before the election for in-person absentee voting, or by 5:00 p.m. Four days before Election Day for mail-in absentee ballots. No-excuse absentee voting is not available in South Carolina except for the specific qualifying reasons listed in state law.