CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The early voting period is coming to a close Saturday across South Carolina.

Early voting began on Oct. 21 and election officials saw record numbers for turnout. This year marks the first time the state has done one of these periods that is open to any voter, and especially for a presidential election.

“People are excited about this year’s presidential election,” Rosie Brown, director of Berkeley County voter registration and elections, said. “Since early voting, we have seen a phenomenal turnout all over the county. People are wanting to get out and get their vote heard. And they’re participating in early voting in record numbers.”

Isaac Cramer, executive director of Charleston County board of elections, echoed the same message. Mount Pleasant is one of their busiest polling locations and said they are moving the lines as much as they can.

“Here in Mount Pleasant, wait times are 20 to 30 minutes,” Cramer said. “We’re seeing the most voters in the state at this location, so even if you see a line, they’re moving really quickly.”

Charleston County recorded nearly 120,000 votes since early voting began. Although they aren’t seeing as many people show up as last week, many were expected today.

“It seems today is the busiest day, which is what we expected – Friday, last Friday before the election, to be the biggest turnout,” Cramer said. “One thing, we’re just encouraging voters is you still have one more day – it’s tomorrow, from 8:30 to 6.”

Berkeley County added 30 in-person voting machines and 2 more to curbside vote to relieve the wait times this week. Officials said they recorded around 50,000 votes. However, voters are coming to cast their ballots at all hours and there is not necessarily an off-peak time. Brown said one trend she noticed last week, that may be helpful for those going to the polls on the last day.

“People usually get up early on Saturday mornings to do their early voting,” Brown said. “We did notice last Saturday that once the college football games started coming on TV or people going out to those games, the line became shorter at that point in time of that day.”

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCSC)- The final site review for a food, entertainment, and public gathering space was approved by Mount Pleasant’s commercial design review board on Wednesday night.

The space is called Gather Mount Pleasant and will be located on Midtown Avenue right across from MUSC Midtown in Mount Pleasant and off of HungryNeck Boulevard.

The co-developer of Gather Mount Pleasant, Mack Cross, said that this project will cost $14 million. He said he wants it to serve as a place for friends and families to come and enjoy time together.

“Spend time, you know, ideally away from screens and have conversation, meet neighbors here, host out of town visitors,” Cross said. “A place that Preston, our other partner and co-developer, are really kind of planning for families like ours and a place where we would like to meet our community and spend time.”

Cross said Gather Mount Pleasant will have a similar atmosphere to the Gather location in Greenville, South Carolina but it will be bigger. Along with a variety of food and beverage options and live music like Gather Greenville, the Mount Pleasant location will have additional features like retail, office and salon space.

However, the site Gather Mount Pleasant will sit on has a residential community right next to it called Midtown Townes and Cross said they have had to modify their designs because of some residents’ concerns.

“We reduced the scale of the project. Originally we had a hotel component, but we have since gotten rid of that. The economy changed through the process, so that was a factor as well, you know, so just navigating all those different factors and really wanting to be thoughtful about the design and making sure that it’s a great fit for this site and this community,” Cross said.

One of the concerns previously expressed was noise, however, Cross said they have addressed this with the setup of the project and wouldn’t be having live music played late at night.

“So the scale of the building and where the stage is located within the project the buildings will provide some natural sound screening for that stage, but yes, we are sensitive that this is a residential area,” Cross said.

Many residents of the townhomes spoke during the public comment session of the meeting. One of their main concerns was about an entrance and exit point for commercial vehicles located on Fortier Drive which many of the residents said this road is essentially a driveway for them. They said with that road already being narrow and having commercial vehicles come through they worried about what congestion it could bring.

Mac Deford, a local politician, is one of those residents. He said that he thinks his community would be overall supportive of this project if they addressed this issue and found an alternative access point for commercial vehicles that doesn’t include Fortier Drive.

“I think as long as they are not using our private road, what is an alleyway, clogging it up with commercial traffic which you know would create a lot of safety concerns and hazards, I think they would have the overwhelming support of our community,” Deford said.

During the meeting, officials assured residents they examined various places to put this access point but that this was the best spot.

Cross said he believes the project they have designed now is the best concept they could be bringing to the area. Now that the commercial design review board has approved, Cross said the next steps would be for them to finish their construction drawings and then submit those to the Town of Mount Pleasant for building permit approval.

He said they hope to break ground in early spring or summer with construction expected to be completed in the middle of 2026.

“It is a place for many occasions, spontaneous occasions. It’s really hard to go out with a big family or multiple families and find a place to eat that’s welcoming and you know not too expensive and you know where you’re not disrupting people,” Cross said. “I can think of numerous occasions of times where you know we will end up here and hopefully others will too.”

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