Thus stood the lonely voting machines at 12:59 p.m. today at A.C. Moore Elementary School.
How’s the turnout where you’re voting?
At mine, shortly after polls opened this morning, there were only two or three other voters there while I was. (My Quail Hollow polling place, by the way, wasn’t where I expected it to be — but I found it OK.)
While out to get a late lunch, I ran by some polling places in the sort of midtownish area, which may or may not have been typical:
- At A.C. Moore, I stopped to chat for awhile with the poll workers, who had plenty of time to do so. Nancy Brock showed me the piece she wrote that just appeared in Jasper magazine. During the time I was there, one voter — Fran Zupan, former features editor at The State — actually stepped forward to vote. There had been 163 voters before her.
- At Rosewood Elementary, I only went so far as the check-in desk, and there was no one waiting there to vote. The ladies working the desk said that 147 people had voted — 101 in the Republican, 46 in the Democratic. I could be wrong, but that’s a precinct I would expect to be heavily Democratic. Those numbers testify, it would seem, to even less enthusiasm among Democrats today.
- At Sims Park, I saw more activity than I had at the three other places (counting my own Quail Hollow) combined. There were about 8-10 people milling about between the check-in desk and the voting machines. As of 1:08 p.m., 98 had voted in the Republican primary, and 46 in the Democratic.
I didn’t see any problems, and if there were any, they should have been fairly simple to solve, given the light turnout. But I did hear something sort of ominous at Rosewood…
Poll watcher Jim Daly, father-in-law of Richland County Treasurer candidate David Adams (I had run into the candidate’s father over at A.C. Moore) said during the few times there had been more than one voter at a time checking in, there was a bottleneck, taking several minutes for each voter. He said that was because of the laptops where the voter information was kept. In previous elections, there had been several printed voter rolls instead of a single laptop, and several voters could be processed at once.
From talking with the poll workers, he had gathered that this was expected to be a huge problem in the fall.
I told him I’d mention it.
Of course, we don’t even know who’s going to be in charge of Richland County elections in November…
Related Posts
There were a couple of other voters at the Lourie Center at about 9:30. I was so hoping not to have any more witnesses than necessary to my shame of voting in the GOP race.
Just tell people you’re doing it to sabotage the GOP primary. That’s what all the Republicans think you’re doing anyway.
JUST KIDDING! I WOULD NEVER SERIOUSLY SUGGEST THAT ANYONE DO ANYTHING TO FURTHER THAT BELIEF ON THE PARTS OF POLITICAL PARTISANS!!!
And be proud of what you did. And go over to my post on the subject of why you did that, and defend me from Doug…
I am not doing it to sabotage the GOP primary. I voted for Graham, as I have said here before, because he is the most desirable candidate who can get elected, which is a positive way of saying the least of evils. I may vote for Brad Hutto in the general, if Graham is the GOP nominee, to register that there are Democratic voters here.
And arguing with Doug is a lost cause. While I have agreed with him several times on the record, I don’t recall that he ever has agreed with me.
This puts some in a bind if Graham wins this primary.
How can it ever again be said that “great minds think alike” if great minds” are become a redundant majority? We shall see if you are safe.
I don’t argue for the sake of arguing. I deal in facts and apply my experiences to form an opinion. We have completely different life experiences. It’s not surprising that we don’t agree on much…
Ah, but I have agreed with you many times, but not you me.
Do you really keep track? I agree with you on dogs and Orange is the New Black.
I voted about 1:30 in Lexington at the American Legion off Harmon Street. The whole process took about 5 minutes. They still use the paper look-up system. During the general last year it probably took less than 30 minutes. Whatever they’re doing in Lexington County seems to work pretty well. I would like to see a little more privacy at the voting machines. Also a printed receipt would give me some peace of mind that the process isn’t tainted.
Agree on the paper receipt, as does Professor Buell, our local voting machine expert.
Our place was,contrary to reports, divided alphabetically, so I had to wait behind a fellow upper alphabetter, while the bottom half guys, actually a man and a woman, sat idle. Also, some youngish guy was doing the looking up on a laptop, and it took him a ridiculously long time. The older woman sitting next to him had to prompt him several times, and I had to ask for him to return my license. Not sure we have a lot of improvement here in RichCo, yet.
Yes indeed, Duncan Buell, both a locally and nationally known expert on voting technology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, who did not make the list for the Richland County Elections Board. I don’t think I even want to know what criteria the committee used.
Oh, we know what the primary criteria was, don’t we?
Criterion…
Always there with a correction.. I wonder if I used criteria for that very reason? hmmm…
I voted at Kilbourne Park at about 1:30, and I think republicans were somewhere in the mid 100s, but democrats were less that 20. I’m in the little ward that votes there, though. I think we have only 800+ registered voters.
There was one other person voting in my ward while I was there, and probably three or four in the other ward.
Voted an hour ago at the Boy’s Club in Rosewood…me and two others. I was #71 on the (D) list and maybe a dozen or so more on the (R) list. No machine woes.
The Rich Co treasurer is basically being elected today since there is no (R) opponent and that vote was a tad more important to me than saving Lindsey from the Tea Party.
Upon entering the Jewish Community Center to vote I was greeted by a poll worker outside the room where voting was actually taking place. I showed him my driver’s license. He asked if I had my voter registration card with me. No, I thought a photo ID was sufficient. He asked if I was supposed to vote at the Spring Valley West precinct. Yes, but don’t you have a record of all the voters registered for the precinct? Couldn’t you look my name up with my driver’s license? Then he asked me a really strange question. Do you have a cell phone number? No, I don’t and I think these questions are kinda strange. I then walked into the room and showed my driver’s license to the lady with the laptop and I voted. What I could not understand was why that guy was basically complicating my trip to vote.
Was he really a poll worker? Weird!
Definitely! He had the badge and he has been a poll worker there several times. I recognized him.
Wow
The cell phone question seems a bit intrusive, don’t you think? What business is it of a poll worker to inquire about your cell phone number? I am with Kathryn on this one. Wow!
I voted in the late morning at St. John Neumann Church. The lady with the laptop couldn’t find me on the roll at first, although I had voted there for the last 15 years. Took her several tries before she could get my name to appear, which definitely slowed things down. There were just a handful of people there, so no real bottleneck developed, but this could indeed be a problem in November when turnout should be much heavier. At least I voted and was out of there in less than the 4 hours that it took me in 2012.
Yes, the laptop sitch was not working well in Richland
I voted about 9 in West Columbia. My usual voting place is Saluda River Academy for the Arts, but today it was moved to the Lutheran Church about 2 blocks away on 378. There were a handful of people coming and going but not enough to make any lines or waiting. I signed number 37 on the Republican paper. I showed my drivers license and was asked no strange questions. They looked me up on paper rather quickly. I had to suppress an urge to tell the nice poll man setting up my machine that this republican thing was not normal for me. I got a sticker. That’s about it.
I got a sticker, too! But no sucker. So on the whole it wasn’t quite as positive an experience as some I had going to the doctor as a kid.
You know, I kept reading about these laptop problems, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember whether they had the laptops when I voted.
I’m guessing, from fellow Lexington Countians Bud’s and Scout’s remarks, that they did not…
Speaking of which, I just came back from a routine doctor visit, and I didn’t get a sucker OR a sticker, or even one of those little round band-aids.
And they drew blood!
Look Brad, we’re trying to bring the cost of medicine down. From here on out, we’re gonna stop giving out suckers and stickers, willy-nilly.
Everyone’s gotta a sacrifice. 🙂
If you want your lollipop, you can keep your lollipop.
I didn’t even cry, and no reward whatsoever…
Man, they stick on an adhesive bandage (Bandaid or generic) AND a big ole wad of gauze every time they take blood at MY doctor’s! No suckers, though. There is a deli on the ground floor that bakes its own cookies on site, and caramelizes the air, but the cookies actually suck. So not worth the calories. Tease cookies….
I miss those safety suckers with the looped string handles….
They were so… Reassuring.
I love the live-in-the-now philosophy that kids have toward candy. The first time we took my elder son trick-or-treating, at the very first house, they gave him a Tootsie Roll. He looked at it, not quite believing this unexpected stroke of luck, sat down on their front step, put down his little football (he was costumed as a football player), and began unwrapping it immediately. Very seize-the-moment.
His son, my grandson, behaved much the same way this Easter. Find a plastic egg, pop it open, gobble the candy, search for another egg… Make the most of the inexplicable situation while it lasts!
I certainly ate my candy as soon as the opportunity for more candy passed. Once I saved a piece of one of those giant fat Hershey bars, and my little brother found it and ate it. Lesson learned!
Man, those candy coated marshmallow Easter eggs were nasty, even then. I ate them, though.
The ways of adults are mysterious. Who knows when such an opportunity will arise again?…