COLUMBIA, S.C. _ On an unprecedented primary election day, reports of problems at polling stations across South Carolina's Richland County have been rolling in.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic that led to increased requests for absentee ballots, there has been a shortage of poll workers at combined precinct locations and issues with ballots, as well.
"We're not off to the start I'm looking for," Terry Graham, interim director for the Richland County Elections Board, told The State on Tuesday morning. Graham could not immediately be reached for comment in the afternoon.
Graham also told the newspaper that he went into the day knowing there would a shortage of poll workers but didn't expect so many to be unavailable for the day of polling for statewide offices.
State Rep. Beth Bernstein, whose 78th District is based in Richland County, said the number of poll workers was significantly down.
"When we normally have 900 to 1,000 poll workers for our election, a month out we were at like 300 and something," she said. "I do believe it came up to maybe 500 or 600, I don't have those exact numbers, but it was significantly less."
The lack of workers, along with the merged precincts, has caused long lines and delays at some locations. At the community center in North Springs Park, voters reported wait times upward of three hours. At a school in Irmo, some residents had to wait an hour and a half to vote. Because of social distancing protocols, lines extended out of buildings at polling locations and into 90-degree heat.
Bernstein said all the issues were "what I was afraid was going to happen, honestly."
Three weeks ago, Bernstein penned a letter asking the leader of the county's legislative delegation to call a meeting with the election commission. Richland County has had a string of problems with its elections, most recently in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary and dating back several years.
"It's frustrating," Bernstein said. "A county of our size and our resources should not continually be having these type of problems. COVID did throw a monkey wrench in all of this. However, we should not have seven elections directors in seven years. That's unacceptable."
Meanwhile, at Kilbourne Park Baptist Church, the precinct manager started issuing handwritten ballots after discovering around noon that some races were missing for some ballots. The state Senate race was missing from Ward 13 ballots, and the congressional race wasn't on Republican ballots from that ward either, he said.
Precinct manager Rusty DePass told a reporter from The State that he decided to start issuing the handwritten ballots to address the problem without consulting with Richland County Election Commission because "they're so incompetent." DePass said it's up to the commission to take the handwritten ballots and manually count them.
DePass said the voting machines for Ward 13 were "screwed up" because they wouldn't let people vote in the Republican congressional race. In response, DePass said he found another voting machine to replace the four he had, but the new machine had the same issue. He called in an assistant to assess the problem but they couldn't fix it, he said.
The problem is only on the ballots for ward 13, whose voters normally go to Rosewood Elementary for elections. Ward 13, however, were combined with wards 24 and 25 for Tuesday's election.
At Brockman Elementary School, House District 75 candidates were reported to be missing from some ballots. And at least one voter, Lynette Farnsworth, was initially turned away because she and her mother had previously requested absentee ballots, despite the fact that the absentee ballots never arrived in the mail.
Farnsworth, 70, said she was able to place some phone calls to the elections office and eventually straighten her situation out.
Incorrect ballots were also reported at Horrell Hill Elementary polling place related to the House District 80 race between Jimmy Bales and Jermaine Johnson. McEntire and Hunting Creek polling sites were both moved to Horrell Hill for Tuesday's election, and board of elections member Duncan Buell said he believes the root of the issue is from combining the polling places.
"This is a major problem here," Margaret Sumpter, the Democratic president of the precinct, told a reporter for The State. She said people were very interested in the Bales-Johnson race, and it was unacceptable that they couldn't vote.
And early Tuesday there was an issue where several voting computers were backed up at the Summit Parkway polling site, though the computers later worked, Buell said. An event log is documenting all of the issues with the computers, and it will be reviewed following the primary, Buell added.
Graham said anyone who encounters a ballot missing a race a should immediately inform a poll worker before casting their ballot. If the ballot is completed, the only alternative for the voter is to return and fill out a provisional ballot, he said.
