While the period to register to vote has ended, officials say that voter misconceptions could hinder what is projected to be a record voter turnout.

Nationally, officials are predicting an almost 80 percent voter turnout in the Nov. 4 general election.

The South Carolina Election Commission reports that voter registrations exceed 2.5 million statewide this year, an increase of nearly 10 percent over last year.

“The fact that nearly a quarter of a million (more) South Carolinians (than in 2004) have taken the first step to exercise their right to vote this year is truly encouraging,” said Marci Andino, executive director of the South Carolina Election Commission. “And the fact that registration has outpaced that of 2004 points to the possibility we could see an even stronger turnout this year.”

Nearly 70 percent of all South Carolina registered voters cast a ballot in the 2004 general election, according to the election commission.

In comparison, only 26 percent of Anderson County’s registered voters cast a ballot in the June 2008 primary. According to the election commission, there were 90,873 registered voters in the county at that time. Anderson County’s population is estimated by the U.S. Census to be 179,000.

But many of those voters may be misinformed.

For months, said Diana Vossbrinck, campaign manager for the Marshall Meadors for Senate campaign for the South Carolina General Assembly, voters have come into the campaign’s headquarters in downtown Anderson or spoken with campaign volunteers with misconceptions about why they couldn’t vote.

“Some of them thought they had to register before every election,” Vossbrinck said. “Some thought that if they voted for the president and left the rest of the ballot blank, they would be voting a straight party ticket.”

Not true, according to election commission officials.

Once a voter is registered in Anderson County, their registration is valid until they move. If a voter moves, he or she needs to notify the voter registration office.

And, according to the League of Women Voters of the Clemson Area, the option to vote a straight-party ballot is the first option on the ballot, listed even before the presidential choices. But according to the commission, a straight-party ballot does not apply to nonpartisan races, such as school board elections, or to referenda, such as the capital projects sales tax initiative in Anderson County.

Some voters are concerned because they have gotten their registration forms back, said Anderson County Council member Gracie Floyd.

“If they get their registrations back, it is because there is information missing,” Floyd said. “They need to fill in that missing information and take it to the registration office. And they need to do it as quickly as possible.”

The Anderson County Voter Registration office is at 107 South Main Street, Suite 101, in the green-and-white striped building behind the old county courthouse in downtown Anderson.