Voters cast primary election ballots at Horrell Hill Elementary School in Hopkins on June 9. Photo by Adam Benson/Post and Courier
A shortage of volunteers willing to work the polls in Richland County amid the coronavirus pandemic created a number of problems around the county as residents cast their ballots Tuesday morning.
Hours-long wait times at some precincts were reported, an overwhelmed sounding Interim Elections Director Terry Graham said, and at a couple polling places, incorrect ballots meant some races didn't appear on machines for residents to cast their vote.
Issues with voting in at least two state races were reported to officials, Graham said, the Democratic Primary for the District 80 House seat and House District 75 candidates. In the Democratic stronghold of District 80, newcomer Jermaine Johnson is taking on the 21-year incumbent Jimmy Bales. Rhodes Bailey and Heather Bauer are vying for the chance to run against four-term Republican incumbent, Kirkman Finlay, in District 75 when the general election arrives.
At Kilbourne Park Baptist Church in Columbia, voters using machines to fill out Republican ballots didn't have a chance to pick between the U.S. House race candidates, after they were left off the computer, precinct manager Rusty Dupass said.
"It's not so much my issue as Joe Wilson's and Michael Bishop's issue," Dupass said. As of 5 p.m., the glitch affected 87 ballots.
Meanwhile, people voting paper ballots saw the U.S. Senate primary featuring Republican Lindsey Graham missing.
Dupass said those constituted about 10 percent of all ballots, and precinct officials added the race by hand.
More than 700 people in this large ward voted as of 4:45 p.m.
Margaret Sumpter, the Democratic president of the Horrell Hill Elementary School precinct where District 80 candidates initially were left off the ballot, went to the polling place around 9:30 a.m. after receiving a number of calls from voters. She said anyone who arrived before 10 a.m. likely wasn't able to vote in one of the three races there.
Graham said the problem was caused by poll workers not following their training and putting up incorrect ballots.
Poll watcher Dwane Sims said he had to alert the poll clerk to the issue at two of the four precincts he'd visited Tuesday. Poorly trained poll workers didn't realize that voters would have different ballots at combined precincts, so they just kept using the same ballot.
"Because of coronavirus, this whole thing is screwed up. It's causing the perfect storm," he said.
Poll workers trained through an online program, at their own leisure, with no one to consult if they had questions, he said.
"It's the election commission's fault for not training them right. These ballots will be contested and thrown out, and people's votes aren't going to count," Sims said.
In one case at Horrell Hill, two voters who lived in the same household told her they had been given different ballots — one where the House race was included and the other without.
"[Poll workers] should have seen that before," Sumpter said. "It's not about me. It's not about a particular candidate. It's about the right of people to vote for who they want to vote for."
Sumpter did not know how many ballots had been cast at the precinct before the problem was addressed. Due to staffing shortages three precincts were consolidated at Horrell Hill.
Jonathan Spencer, the precinct manager, said more than 500 people cast in-person ballots, with few complications. He declined to say how many ballots were cast incorrectly.
"It's actually been going really well. People have been following our social distancing lines, and all but or two or three have masks," Spencer said.
Anyone who encounters a ballot that is missing candidates names should inform a poll worker before casting their ballot. If the ballot is already cast a voter must return and fill out a provisional ballot.
At Spring Valley High School, voters spent more than four hours in a line that snaked inside the school's hallways and outside, around the school to the football stadium, in 97 degree weather. Five precincts were combined into one there, but poll workers had just two working laptops to check voters in and three machines per precinct. Normally, each precinct would have three laptops and 10 to 12 voting machines.
"I haven't gotten any explanation," said Deborah Jones, who first waited an hour in her car for curbside voting due to bad knees. When that line wasn't moving, she got in line outside. "What's made me so angry is the length of time we've stayed in line. This is very, very frustrating. It's poor planning. I think it's a disgrace."
April Finley, 38, brought her own lawn chair and left it for other voters to use after spending 4 1/2 hours in line at Spring Valley High.
"This is ridiculous. The taxes we pay and we couldn't afford more laptops, more machines? That's unacceptable. I feel like we're back in the '60s," the school counselor said, adding she would've stayed no matter how long it took. "I don't have a choice. Things need to change, and the only way they can change is if my voice is heard."
Graham sounded the alarm on the poll worker shortage back in April, telling the county election commission: "There are a lot of people who have expressed their concern. A lot of our poll workers are over 60 years old."
In May, it was decided the county would operate about 70 polling places for Tuesday's primaries, down from the usual 149. Typically, about 900 people work elections in Richland County, but at that time, only 500 had committed to work.
There have been numerous challenges with Richland elections over time. In 2018, more than 1,000 ballots were not counted in the November election, shaking Gov. Henry McMaster’s confidence in the county elections commission and resulting in the removal of the entire board and director.
Most recently, there was a mixup during this year’s Democratic presidential preference primary where 74 absentee ballots were accidentally left in a locked storage room.
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