Some facing long lines on Election Day, Midlands voters say it’s worth waiting
Hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians went to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the 2020 election. The State has provided live updates on voting conditions throughout the day.
After early morning snafus at some Midlands polling places, including technology issues and power outages at multiple precincts, voting appeared to largely be running smoothly by midday. Local voters and election officials have been hoping to avoid a repeat of extravagantly long lines that marred the June primary election.
Historic voter turnout is possible in this election, thanks in large part to expanded absentee voting, which was allowed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. More than a million South Carolinians cast their votes early either in-person or by mail. The vast number of early voters might have helped lessen lines on Election Day, several Columbia-area poll workers said.
For those who waited to vote on Election Day, the pandemic has changed their experience, too. Voters must wear a face mask at polling places, maintain 6 feet of distance from others while waiting in line, and use a cotton swab to make selections on the touch-screen voting machines.
5 p.m.
As the sun sets and more voters get off of work, polling stations are seeing the last stream of voters before the 7 p.m. deadline to cast a ballot in South Carolina.
Some precincts continue to see technology issues. Poll clerk Marcilla Brown said the WiFi hotspot provided to the Woodlands Park precinct had also given them connection issues, a problem seen at polling locations across Columbia on Election Day, though there is no wait time to vote.
Of the precinct’s 2,363 registered voters, roughly 1,900 ballots already cast their votes by 4:30 p.m. Countywide, about 45,800 voters in total had cast ballots, according to the Richland County Elections and Voter Registration Office.
Voters who waited until late afternoon reported a quick voting experience. Gayatri Kuraganti said the line at River Bluff High School in Lexington was much shorter than when she voted last time.
“The que-tip was a great idea so we don’t have to touch anything,” Kuraganti, 39, said of the social-distancing measure put in place across the state this year. She took her son with her to vote at the high school.
Phillip Thomas, 36, said he voted in under four minutes at River Bluff.
“Being in a free country it’s not only our right to vote it’s our privilege,” Thomas said.
While voters still have a couple hours to vote, poll workers don’t expect a huge late rush. Brown, the poll clerk at Woodlands Park, said she doesn’t expect much of late night rush.
“There can’t be that many left to vote,” she said.
Worth the wait
S.C. Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Hopkins resident and a Democrat who’s up for reelection on today’s ballot, stopped by Bluff Road Park to see how everyone was doing. The gym where people were voting is also where he first learned to play basketball and was where he first voted. He said he was pleased with how smoothly the precinct was running.
Voters across South Carolina were choosing to show up at the polls in spite of the threat of the coronavirus.
Lilliann Hemingway, a 20-year-old Columbia resident, said she was a bit concerned about getting in a crowd during the pandemic because she was afraid she might spread the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus to her grandmother. But the crowds were light at Trenholm Park where she voted, and the workers were wearing masks.
Hemingway said her 85-year-old grandmother, whom she takes care of, has always encouraged her to vote as soon as she was old enough. Many people, including those her age, don’t always realize why voting is so important, Hemingway said.
“My ancestors, the people who were before me, fought so hard for people who look like me to get the right to vote,’’ Hemingway said after casting her ballot at the Trenholm Park precinct off Covenant Road. “I just felt like I had to. It’s my civic duty.’’
Hemingway said she voted for Joe Biden for president because ”he stands for things I see are needed in the world and in my community. I have to go based off history. President Trump, I’m not going to say he wasn’t the best president, but he made a lot of errors.’’
Earlier in the day, Ray Ford, 50, was the first person to cast a ballot at Red Bank Elementary School in Lexington County. He arrived at the school at 5:20 a.m.
Emerging from the school’s front door shortly after 7 a.m., Ford said he was proud to cast his ballot for President Donald Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham, both Republicans.
“It’s my civic duty, it’s a privilege to come vote,” he said. “Plus, I wanted to be here for my candidates. ... Donald Trump has kept his promises. He’s done most of what he set out to do and what he said he was going to do the first time. I’m excited to vote for him.”
A young woman named America voted in her first presidential election Tuesday at Spring Valley High School in northeast Richland County.
“It was kind of exciting,’’ America Tlaczani, 20, said.
Tlaczani joined her uncle, 53-year-old Bill Wilson, and Wilson’s daughter, Samantha, at the precinct, where they waited about two hours to cast their votes. They didn’t mind the wait.
Also voting in his first presidential election was 18-year-old Charlie Koverman.
“A lot of people say there’s no point in voting in South Carolina as a Democrat but it’s my right to do so,” Koverman said after casting his ballot at Oak Point Elementary School in Irmo. “My voice is cast, it’s OK, it’s the democratic process either way.”
“I think it’s all about people,” he added. “I hope we take care of people. Love our neighbor as yourself.”
‘Any crazies’? Nope
1 p.m.
At Dutch Fork High School in Irmo, a voter checking in said, “This line is shorter than Chick-fil-A!”
The historic number of South Carolinians who voted early in this election, via either mail-in or in-person absentee voting, might be helping limit the size of voting lines today, some poll workers believe.
Gladys Harris, poll clerk at Hopkins Elementary School in Lower Richland, said 400 people had voted at the site so far, shortly before 1 p.m. There was no wait at the time, though Harris said she expected people to pour in around 3 p.m. as they got off work. Compared to past elections, Harris said this presidential election has been run smoothly and that absentee and early voting has been a tremendous help for handling the Election Day crowd.
“I worked during Obama’s (2008) election, and we never got a break. We couldn’t even eat,” Harris said while enjoying her lunch. “It was hard to even get a chance to go to the restroom.”
Around lunchtime, no one was in line to vote at the Trenholm Park precinct, which has about 3,000 registered voters. Workers said they believe early voting is the reason. Normally, polls become busier at lunchtime.
Amber Flannery, a poll worker at Trenholm Park, said she was relieved that there had been no tensions among voters.
“I saw on the news that people in Charleston had boarded up their windows in anticipation of problems,” she said. “I was kind of worried. One of my friends even texted me to see if I had seen any crazies. But no. Everybody has been really nice and chill.”
The poll was about 10 minutes late opening Tuesday morning because workers, many of them new, were still setting up machines.
While a number of relatively minor voting problems have been reported in Richland County and across the state, including a variety of technology issues, most can be chalked up to expected “election morning jitters,” said Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the State Election Commission.
“Some poll managers had issues with opening some equipment, but those issues seem to have been resolved in short order this morning,” Whitmire said. “With approximately 2,300 polling places throughout the state, we expect some of that on election morning. It’s the county’s job to work through those issues until everything is running smoothly in all polling places, and apparently, that has been done.”
Among the more baffling Election Day problems in S.C. was in Beaufort County, where a woman said the state’s official voter information system at scvotes.org had directed her to the wrong polling location, the Island Packet newspaper reported. The woman had to cast a provisional ballot, and election officials were looking into the issue.
“My vote needs to count,” she said.
‘I wouldn’t miss it, if I had to crawl’
Noon
Only two out of five voting machines at Ridgewood Missionary Baptist Church in north Columbia were working early Tuesday morning, but the problems had been fixed and all machines were running by lunchtime, poll clerk James Brown said.
There had been 129 voters by 11:30 a.m., and 195 people in the precinct had voted early.
When the polls first opened at 7 a.m., Brown said there was a small line, and he expected it to get busy again around 5 p.m. Brown said the new card-scanning machines are “quick, accurate and moves the line real fast.” Brown has been the clerk at Ridgewood for 45 years.
Voters were trickling in one at a time as morning turned to afternoon.
While some voters across South Carolina reported voting issues Tuesday morning, long waits and big turnouts were by no means a universal story.
Late-morning voting was so light in parts of Richland County that a student group had trouble finding enough people to provide with free snacks.
The Blythewood High ROTC organization had a table full of tortilla chips, potato chips, candy and other snacks outside the North Springs Community Center at about 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Charles White, a teacher who led the group, said he was somewhat surprised at the turnout because early voting before Tuesday had been jammed. After a line of about 100 people at 7 a.m., the crowd “just went dry.”
“We went to three different polling sites and everywhere we’ve gone, there’s been no line,” he said while standing outside the North Springs Community Center. “I came by yesterday to gauge things, and there were cars everywhere. Cars were backed up on the street going in both directions.”
The group also had visited Blythewood Middle School, Killian Park and another nearby North Springs precinct.
Power had been restored by around 11: a.m. at several polling sites in the Shandon area near downtown Columbia, including at Hand Middle School.
Beverly Green and Annetta Johnson came to Hand Middle School to vote curbside. They are neighbors in an independent living building. Green is a breast cancer survivor, and Johnson is in a wheel chair. Green said she regrets not voting in the last election but said Tuesday, “I wouldn’t miss it, if I had to crawl.”
Both Green and Johnson said they came out to vote for Joe Biden because of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, COVID-19 response and how he handled his own illness. “This is important. I’m praying with all my heart that he gets out of there,” Johnson said.
Power out at some polls
10:30 a.m.
Voting machines at Hand Middle School in Columbia’s Shandon neighborhood were running on generator power after about a 30-minute power outage. Street lights in the area were also out, awaiting Dominion Energy crews to restore power. Voting temporarily came to a halt while poll clerk Russell Jones figured out how to administer emergency ballots. Luckily, no more than two or three dozen people stood in line at the time.
About 40% of registered voters in the precinct, Ward 12, had already voted absentee. More than 200 people voted at Hand in the three hours after polls opened Tuesday, before the power went out.
A voter at A.C. Moore Elementary School, about a mile away from Hand Middle, said power was also out there at around 10:30 a.m.
At Eastside Presbyterian Church in Greenville, paper ballots were briefly used due to a power outage.
At Earlewood Park Community Center in Columbia, voting was briefly interrupted when firefighters evacuated the building. An overheated motor in the building’s heating and cooling system caused smoke in the building. The polling place was reopened shortly after 10 a.m., the Columbia Fire Department said.
At the North Springs Community Center precinct in northeast Richland County, voters had to wait about an hour because a scanner was not working properly, poll workers said. The scanner records votes.
“It was a very frustrating hour,” poll worker Bryan Biscoll said.
Some voters who had cast ballots in the summer’s primary election also had not gotten word that the North Springs center no longer was their precinct. Four precincts were combined for the June primary, and votes were held at the community center. But many voters did not know the precincts had been split back out on Tuesday, poll workers said.
“People are coming here thinking they are supposed to vote here,” said the poll clerk, who identified herself only as Debbie. “Communication has not gotten out that they are now back into regular voting.”
Shortly before 11 a.m., voting at the North Springs community center on Clemson Road was lighter than normal for a presidential election year but that likely was because so many people cast ballots early, an official said. At about 10 a.m., there was only a small line inside the gymnasium where voting machines were set up.
“We normally get more than that, but I’m sure some people have already voted,” the clerk said. She said she expected a surge of voters later in the day.
Lines, a few equipment issues
9:30 a.m.
Lines — some quick, some slow — were the name of the game for many voters in every corner of South Carolina Tuesday morning.
Wait times for voters in the Midlands ranged from about 10 minutes at Cayce United Methodist Church in Lexington County to up to two hours at Spring Valley High School in northeast Richland County and at Woodlands Park in eastern Columbia, where a technology problem kept things moving slowly early in the morning.
At Spring Valley High, voters were trying to stay 6 feet apart in line, but distancing was difficult. For the most part, voters wore face masks and had no complaints about the long wait time. Five months ago, Spring Valley was the site of some of the longest waits for Richland County voters in the June primary, as multiple precincts were combined at the location. On Tuesday, however, no precincts were combined, and the line was moving slowly but steadily at the high school.
Voters at multiple precincts across Richland County reported some technology and equipment problems in the early hours of voting. The State has reached out to Richland County elections director Alexandria Stephens.
In Greenville County, 350 people had voted in two and a half hours at Stone Elementary School. After an early line, there was no wait by 9:30 a.m.
Early morning rush, ‘chaotic start’
8 a.m.
The line of people waiting to vote at Woodlands Park in eastern Columbia appeared to number in the hundreds, as equipment issues kept things moving slowly.
The wait time to vote at Sims Park in Columbia’s Shandon neighborhood was about 50 minutes, as the line grew.
Two miles away at Martin Luther King Park in Five Points, voting got off to a “chaotic start,” poll clerk Major Deshazior, a military veteran, said.
Most of the poll workers at the precinct were working their first election and learning quickly on the job — though they have received training from the Richland County elections office — and new ID scanners to check in voters are “throwing them for a loop,” Deshazior said.
MLK Park workers hadn’t yet set up curbside voting outside. But the earliest voters — who began lining up by 6 a.m. — had already made their way through. By 8 a.m., there was no line outside.
In the Upstate, one Greenville voting place was using paper ballots due to a problem, but all other voting locations were reportedly running smoothly.
First in line as polls open
7 a.m.
Polls opened in the Palmetto State, with equipment issues off the bat at some voting precincts.
At Woodlands Park in eastern Columbia, a slow check-in process first thing in the morning meant only two out of six voting machines were being used, while dozens of people waited in line outside.
At Martin Luther King Park downtown, the ballot scanner glitched shortly after voting began, temporarily halting the line.
But voting got off to a smooth start at Red Bank Elementary School in Lexington County, where voters who couldn’t wait stood in line before sunrise Tuesday.
Half an hour before the polls opened, more than 100 people stood in line outside the school, waiting to cast their ballots in one of the most contentious presidential races in United States history. Within 15 minutes, the line had nearly doubled in length.
Voters bundled up against the cold on a morning when temperatures plummeted to below 40 for the first time since last spring. The parking lot at the Lexington County school was full, with some people parking trucks on the grass and others parking on the roadside.
In addition to the heavy coats, some wore face masks that infectious disease doctors say will limit the spread of the coronavirus, the disease that has killed more than 3,500 South Carolina residents since March. Some were not wearing masks.
Randi Cade, the clerk in charge of the poll at Red Bank Elementary, said things were going smoothly early on.
She was limiting to 15 the number of people allowed inside the building because of the threat of coronavirus. People who came through signed in on a new electronic check in system that Cade said was supposed to make voting faster. Under the new system, computers scan voters’ drivers’ licenses, then voters sign the screen, as opposed to signing paper sheets.
Cade said she expected up to 1,000 voters at the precinct today. About 650 people had cast ballots during the early voting process. “So far, so good,’’ Cade said. “I’ve got to get this this line down. And I’m doing it.’’
By 6 a.m., John Love was first in line outside his voting precinct at Martin Luther King Park in downtown Columbia. Election workers were still setting up voting machines, signs and tape marking 6 feet of distance between for people who will stand in line.
“I figured I’d wait one hour rather than two,” said Love, 49. “Around here, there were lines like crazy for early voting.”
What you need to know
In addition to the presidential race between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, voters across South Carolina were deciding another hotly contested, closely watched race: the battle for the U.S. Senate between longtime incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham and upstart challenger Democrat Jaime Harrison.
In local races, voters across Richland and Lexington counties were deciding who will represent them on county councils, school boards and in the S.C. State House.
Not sure where to go to vote or who’s on your ballot? Check your voter registration at scvotes.org.
Need more information about candidates? Check out The State’s comprehensive voter guide.
Have last-minute questions about voting? Get answers here.
Notice any issues at your voting place? Give us a shout at online@thestate.com, and our reporters will follow up as possible.
Check back here frequently for timely updates on voting conditions in the Midlands and across South Carolina, and visit thestate.com for a full rundown of results as votes are tallied tonight.
Reporters Sammy Fretwell, Laurryn Thomas, Joshua Boucher, Tracy Glantz, Lyn Riddle, Andrew Caplan and Chiara Eisner contributed.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 6:43 AM.
