Calls to the SC Election Protection hotline from voters reporting problems came in at nearly one a minute on Election Day.

“We logged a total of 1,034 calls by 8pm,” said SC Election Protection field manager Brett Bursey. “That’s more that double the number made in the 2004 and 2006 election combined.” More than half the calls came in on Election Day. Charleston County led the state with 131 problems reported. Greenville and Richland counties each logged 83 calls, and Spartanburg had 56.

Spartanburg County Election Commission Director Henry Laye was the hardest to reach of the county directors. Laye allowed a Republican poll watcher to challenge black voters’ reasons for voting absentee, which made long lines even longer. On Nov. 4, Spartanburg had some of the longest lines, with voters waiting up to five hours. Two precincts reported people in line three hours after the polls closed.

The National Election Protection Coalition of nonpartisan advocacy groups staffed call centers around the country that logged 43,207 calls. Calls were posted by state on the organization’s web site, and volunteer legal advisors in South Carolina followed up with phone calls to voters to help them resolve problems.

Nearly 200 calls were from voters who were not listed on the poll books. Most were newly registered and never received their cards. Many of these people were turned away and not given the opportunity – as required by law – to vote a provisional ballot.

It was clear from the calls that counties are not consistent in interpreting the election laws. “Counties make their own rules, and laws are what the poll workers think they are,” said one frustrated legal volunteer.

The SC Progressive Network will be holding town meeting across the state to gather citizens’ input on their experiences voting in an effort to our work to pass legislation next session to improve voting procedures and practices in South Carolina. The Network introduced legislation in 2006 for Early Voting Centers and other reforms that would have reduced both the lines and the stress on poll workers. For details on these bills, click here. 

If you have a story to tell about problems voting, please email it to network@scpronet.com. Be sure to include your name, contact information, location of problem and whether it was resolved.

Surprise!

By Becci Robbins

The phones have been ringing steadily in the SC Progressive Network‘s office today. We’ve been working with the national Election Protection Coalition, which is staffing a hotline to provide free legal assistance to voters with problems at the polls. As of 5:30pm, the hotline has logged 36,513 reports, 480 in South Carolina. We will provide details about the reports once we’ve had time to review them and complete follow-up phone calls. For now, suffice it to say that election workers were not prepared to handle the unprecedented turnout.

It’s not like they didn’t know Election Day was coming. The large number of new voters was no surprise, either. So it’s been frustrating to watch the process over the last couple of weeks. The Get Out The Vote work we’d intended to do was delayed because election offices were so backed up that new registrations hadn’t been entered into the database. And the long lines of people trying to vote absentee bordered on abusive, with some waiting more than four hours to cast a ballot.

When I voted yesterday, in Lexington County, the wait was over two hours. The gentleman in front of me was using a cane and, worried that he wouldn’t be able to handle standing for such a long time, I went to see if he could use the curbside machines set aside for folks with physical disabilities. I was told that the person who brought him would have to wait in line, and then the machine would be brought out. He drove himself, I told them, so what was he to do? They said he could take advantage of a wheelchair parked by the front door.

It’s hard to understand why the county was so ill-prepared to deal with the needs of such voters – especially since among the reasons people can vote absentee in South Carolina is if they are disabled or over 65. The problems in Lexington were not isolated, as I watched people drive up for curbside voting in Columbia and, when nobody came out to help them, they drove off without voting. I also watched seniors stack up by the door to the election office, where there were chairs, with nobody coming out to advise them.

Clearly, we can do better. The Network is working to make sure that we do. We plan to revisit legislation we introduced last session to make it easier to vote. (For details on those bills, click here.) And we are going to hold town hall meetings in the coming weeks so South Carolinians can tell their stories and share ideas about how to improve election process in the Palmetto State.

In the meantime, if you had a problem at the polls, please make a report to the Election Protection hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE. That data will be used to inform legislative and procedural remedies for future elections.

Finally, thanks to everyone who volunteered today and in the days leading up to the election. Thanks, too, to all the voters who braved long lines to vote. Let’s hope that sort of faith in democracy is contagious.