South Carolina – The Voting News

South Carolina: Greenville County elections director departs to head turbulent state elections office | Macon Atkinson/Post and Courier

April 3, 2026

Greenville County’s longtime election director, Conway Belangia, will take the helm at South Carolina’s state election office following months of turmoil and turnover at the state agency tasked with overseeing voting and voter registration. The S.C. Election Commission voted unanimously March 25 to appoint him executive director after a special called meeting. Belangia leaves the state’s most populous county, home to 343,168 registered voters. Belangia has been Greenville County’s director of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections for 34 years. He has served as an elections official for more than four decades, with previous stops at the state Election Commission and in Orangeburg County. Read Article

South Carolina ‘wasted’ more than $30M on new voting machines, Senator says | Lucy Valeski/The State

February 27, 2026

After taking out more than $30 million in loans for new voting equipment before the 2024 general election, the new ballot scanners work similarly to the former machines, state Election Commission executive director Jenny Wooten told lawmakers Tuesday. The state Election Commission agreed to pay more than $28 million for ballot scanners and other new voting equipment in late 2024. With additional sales tax and interest, the cost ballooned to nearly $32 million, Wooten said Tuesday. Former executive director Howard Knapp, who was fired by the commission in September, signed off on the requests. The new ballot scanners work similarly to the old machines, Wooten told a Senate Finance panel Tuesday. The subcommittee is in the process of vetting agency budget requests for next fiscal year. Read Article

South Carolina: Governor appoints new head of SC Election Commission after board chairman resigns his lengthy term | Anna Wilder/Post and Courier

January 23, 2026

The head of the S.C. Election Commission resigned from his seat by saying he’d stayed longer than intended. Dennis Shedd told reporters he wanted his “retirement time back.” The former federal judge’s window of service was supposed to end in June 2025. “As I told you, I just anticipated being in this job for about six or eight months. It just dawned on me that I'm really ready to move on to something else,” Shedd told reporters at the commission’s Jan. 21 meeting. Some of the reasons he decided to stay included issues surrounding top staffers that led to criminal charges and the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for voter information data. Read Article

South Carolina: Federal lawsuit claims absentee ballot law makes voting harder for people with disabilities | Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette

December 11, 2025

A South Carolina law meant to prevent election fraud makes it harder for people with disabilities to vote, civil rights groups claimed in a federal lawsuit. Under a 2022 law, anyone can vote early with no excuse necessary or request an absentee ballot to vote by mail. To prevent the possibility of fraud, legislators added a limit of five ballots that any one person could request or submit for someone else. In nursing homes and residential care settings, where residents often rely on a single staff member to help them vote, that makes voting difficult, attorneys for the state American Civil Liberties Union argued in a lawsuit filed in federal court Friday. Three nursing home residents sued alongside the state NAACP, contending the law violates the federal Voting Rights Act. Read Article

South Carolina election agency picks new leader after firing director | Lucy Valeski/The State

December 4, 2025

Jenny Wooten should lead the agency overseeing South Carolina’s elections, the state Election Commission unanimously decided Tuesday. The agency’s top leaders were fired, and later arrested, in the last several months amid several ongoing investigations. Wooten then became interim director of the agency after former Executive Director Howard Knapp was fired. The state Senate now has to approve hiring her. Knapp was fired by the Election Commission on Sept. 17. The commission later offered up a laundry list of reasons for his ouster in October, including allegedly falsifying documents to the commission, creating a toxic work environment and misleading the commission on a contract. Read Article

South Carolina: How a $28 million contract for voting machines ballooned into $33 million election agency headache | Nick Reynolds/The Post and Courier.

October 23, 2025

State election officials brokered an agreement to avoid defaulting on a multi-million-dollar agreement for voting machines, quelling distant fears the bank that financed the deal could potentially repossess the equipment. The final price tag will run millions of dollars more than officials originally anticipated. In a settlement finalized at an Oct. 20 state Election Commission meeting, the agency’s governing board announced it would pay TD Bank around $33 million for its recent purchase of 3,240 ballot readers from voting tabulation firm ES&S on a delayed basis. The move averts an emerging minor fiscal crisis for the agency after officials learned it was unable to make the first $10 million payment to the bank last month due to a budgeting error. The miscue had sparked concerns from figures like state Treasurer Curtis Loftis that the bank could potentially repossess the machines and damage the state’s credit rating. Read Article

South Carolina: Missing $4 million? State investigations? Election Commission awash in drama | John Monk and Lucy Valeski/The State

October 16, 2025

A missing $4 million, a $10 million loan installment coming due with no money to pay for it and whether former State Election Commission director Howard Knapp misrepresented the price of buying new machines for the state in 2024. Those were three questions about a $28 million purchase for machines to count voter’s ballots aired Wednesday during an unusually open public meeting of the State Election Commission board. “We know that we authorized $28 million (for the voting machines) ... but the loan appears to be for $32 million,” said Commission chairman Dennis Shedd during the meeting. The three other commission members agreed that they had approved a $28 million loan. Read Article

South Carolina: Judge Diane Goodstein’s home burns to ground after ruling against Trump | Alia Shoaib/Newsweek

October 10, 2025

The home of a South Carolina judge was destroyed after it went up in flames on Saturday. A fire engulfed the home of Judge Diane Goodstein, who serves on the state Circuit Court, and led to three people being hospitalized with injuries, including her husband, according to a report from The Post and Courier. The fire comes weeks after Goodstein issued a ruling against the Trump administration. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the blaze, and there is currently no evidence to suggest it was an act of arson. The incident quickly sparked online conversation hostility toward members of the judiciary who rule against Trump and his allies. Read Article

South Carolina: Judge sides with release of voter data despite privacy argument | Nick Reynolds/Post and Courier

October 3, 2025

A state judge has rejected the effort to prevent the S.C. Election Commission from sharing its database of 3.3 million voters’ sensitive information with the U.S. Department of Justice. In a 12-page decision Oct. 1, Circuit Judge Daniel Coble said he believed the federal government’s right to the information took precedent. Additionally, he said he believed plaintiff Anne Crook failed to prove she will suffer an irreparable harm from the release of the data which she said would run afoul of her state-sanctioned right to privacy. While Crook’s attorneys argued the federal government had a poor track record in protecting voters’ information, Coble said they failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that South Carolinians’ information would not be protected. Read Article

South Carolina election agency fires 2nd official, confirms hidden recorder | John Monk/The State

September 26, 2025

The South Carolina State Election Commission fired its second top official on Tuesday and confirmed that the State Law Enforcement Division found a hidden recording device in the agency’s meeting room. Agency Deputy Director Paige Salonich was terminated as of Tuesday for a variety of offenses including placing an “unauhorized device in the Election Commission training room, a clear violation of state and agency policy,” said a letter sent Tuesday to Salonich. She was making a salary of $141,788 a year. Salonich’s placing of the device, which sources told The State was a voice-activated digital recorder, was “recorded on agency security cameras,” the letter to her stated. Read Article

South Carolina election commission ousts executive director Howard Knapp | Lucy Valeski/The State

September 18, 2025

The state election commission fired Executive Director Howard Knapp from his post during a scheduled meeting Wednesday, but declined to immediately disclose why other than a desire for “new leadership.” The removal did not have to do with the “conduct of any election in South Carolina,” chairman Dennis Shedd said in an emailed statement after the meeting. After a nearly five-hour executive session with no lunch break Wednesday afternoon, the commission came back and voted to remove Knapp. The vote was 3-2, with Shedd joining board members Clifford Edler and Scott Moseley voting to remove Knapp. Following the public meeting, staff members had a separate meeting where they were told about Knapp’s removal. Some staff appeared visibly surprised afterward, however, others seemed upset during the executive session before the vote to fire Knapp. Read Article

South Carolina: Voters beware: 25 states restrict AI in elections. South Carolina is in the other half. | Shaun Chornobroff/SC Daily Gazette

June 27, 2025

South Carolina enters the 2026 campaign season without any state laws preventing political candidates from using artificial intelligence to make unfounded attacks against their opponents. Twenty-five states now require disclosures when using AI in campaign materials or banned its use altogether, with a number of them passing their laws ahead of the 2024 election, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In the last presidential election cycle, GOP hopeful Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign shared AI-generated images of President Donald Trump hugging Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and one-time chief medical adviser to the president, who is loathed by much of Trump’s base. Read Article

South Carolina: Aiken County election’s office fails first effort to certify | Anna Wilder/Hilton Head Island Packet

November 22, 2024

Despite initially certifying the wrong election results and failing its audit, all votes in Aiken County have been accurately counted and certified, despite a software glitch, state and county election officials said. South Carolina Election Commission spokesperson John Michael Catalano said some of the vote totals in Aiken were incorrectly counted in the wrong voting-method category, but the total votes for each candidate were correct. “It was the makeup of the vote, and it was basically absentee votes were showing up in election day totals,” Catalano said. Catalano said no other county has failed an audit since 2020 when South Carolina changed the voting system process to include paper ballots. Read Article

South Carolina prepares for November with new ballot scanners, court incentive for poll workers | Abraham Kenmore/SC Daily Gazette

September 20, 2024

All of South Carolina’s ballot-counting machines are being replaced with new, faster versions ahead of the November elections. The State Election Commission on Tuesday announced the purchase of 3,240 updated DS300 ballot scanners. The new scanners are slightly smaller than the ones used since 2020 but otherwise look the same and are made by the same company. However, they’ll start up, scan and upload results significantly faster, according to the agency. “This upgrade reflects our commitment to providing a secure, accurate, and transparent voting process that is accessible to all eligible voters,” Howie Knapp, executive director of the Election Commission, said in a news release. The total cost of the new scanners is about $29 million, paid for through a program of the state treasurer’s office that provides low-cost financing to upgrade state agencies’ equipment. Read Article

South Carolina: Here’s why election equipment maintenance and licensing matters | Rachel Ripp/WLTX

September 16, 2022

Maintaining and renewing licenses for election equipment is vital. If it's not maintained, and something goes wrong, it can impact the process of casting your ballot. That's why this week, Lexington County Council met to approve about $184,000 for voting machine maintenance fees and licensing renewals. It's a yearly to do list item, but it's also critical to election integrity. "Maintenance on the equipment, so if something breaks, the screen breaks and you need a screen replaced, preventative maintenance on scanners, making sure the rollers are clean and everything's functioning properly," said Chris Whitmire, SC Election Commission spokesperson. Lexington County Election Administrator Lenice Shoemaker tells News 19 her office has been lucky the past 12 years she's worked there. "I didn't have any trouble with any of my machines that I get. I had a battery that was going low once, which these don't use that anymore, and the rover came, swapped out the batteries and it was fine. I just used a different machine until he could check it," Shoemaker said. But it's better to be safe than sorry. Lenice explains her staff is starting the process of checking all the equipment, from cleaning it to making sure all the buttons work to scanning test ballots. After all, this equipment just sits in a storage room, unused for long periods of time if there's no special or municipal elections. And when it is used, it's on the move. Full Article: Lexington County council renews election maintenance | wltx.com

South Carolina: Early voting coming after lawmakers reach deal on election board oversight | Zak Koeske/The State

May 13, 2022

True early voting in South Carolina appears likely to become a reality this year. Both the House and Senate on Wednesday approved elections bills that add two weeks of early in-person voting, establish a set number of early voting sites in each county and authorize election officials to begin examining and tabulating absentee votes prior to Election Day. The popular legislation had appeared dead just a few weeks ago due to the Senate’s insistence on including a provision giving the body say-so over the governor’s appointments to the state elections board, which the House and Gov. Henry McMaster would not entertain. Senators late Wednesday dropped that demand, settling instead for confirmation of the state election director and a process for removing the elections board or its executive director if they fail to enforce and defend or publicly discredit state elections laws. “In a way, what we have here is better than advice and consent on the board,” said Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, the amended election bill’s sponsor. Campsen explained that while senators may not be able to deny board nominees up front, they now have a process for removing them once they’re seated, if need be. Full Article: No-excuse early SC voting could be in place by 2022 primaries | The State

South Carolina House effort to expand early, no-excuse voting gets unanimous support | Emily Bohatch/The State

March 4, 2022

House Republicans rejected a push from within their own party Wednesday to close the state’s primary elections, and instead unanimously advanced a bipartisan proposal that would add two weeks of excuse-free early voting and allow local election offices to count ballots early. Lawmakers passed the bill, sponsored by House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, in the wake of a record breaking number of absentee ballots cast in 2020. South Carolina offered no-excuse absentee voting because of the ongoing pandemic. As a result, more than a million residents took advantage. Under current law, South Carolina voters can only cast absentee ballots if they meet certain criteria, such as a disability or older than 65 years old. The House bill would set a permanent, no-excuse necessary in-person voting period Monday through Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., in the two weeks ahead of general elections, primaries, primary runoffs, special and municipal elections. Voters who look to vote absentee by mail, however, would still be required to have an excuse. The bill also contains provisions that would allow election workers to begin tallying absentee ballots one day earlier than is currently allowed. Specifically, election workers would be allowed to look at outer envelopes of returned absentee ballots the Sunday before Election Day, and they would be allowed to begin counting ballots the Monday morning before. Full Article: SC lawmakers expand early voting, quash move to close primaries | The State

South Carolina: Voting machine issues reported in Richland County on morning of election runoff | Noah Feit/The State

November 16, 2021

As Columbians went the polls Tuesday in the runoff elections for mayor and a city council seat, reports surfaced of voting machines not working at multiple precincts. Initially, issues were reported in 12 of 70-plus voting precincts in Richland County. But the problem could be more widespread and might have affected all voting locations, Alexandria Stephens, Richland County’s Director of Voter Registration and Elections, told The State. Stephens said information on the specific polling places that reported problems was not available. “We’ve had some issues with electronic poll books,” Stephens said. “There is no issue with voting. People can still vote.” The electronic poll books are used to check in voters, Stephens said. The problem meant the bar code used to select a a specific style of ballot was not working, South Carolina Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told The State. This did not prevent the ability to vote, it just created some extra work for poll managers, according to Whitmire. Because the ballots were not being activated by the bar code, poll managers had to take voters to the machines and call up the ballots, Whitmire said. Full Article: Columbia, SC runoff election for mayor has problem at polls | The State

South Carolina: Lexington County GOP calls for 2020 election audit, confusing GOP Lexington State Senator | Adam Mintzer/WIS

October 8, 2021

The Lexington County Republican Party wants the 2020 election results to be looked at again despite their party’s big wins in the county and state. In a resolution the county party passed this week, the Lexington County GOP says people in Lexington and across the state witnessed quote “questionable activities” as the votes in the 2020 election were being counted. “[V]oter rolls have not been sufficiently cleaned as required by law throughout the state, therefore, allowing for illegal votes via residency, citizens located on the death registry and other circumstances,” the county party writes in the resolution without providing further evidence. State Senator Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, says she is confused by what her own constituents are trying to achieve through this audit and says going through with it could potentially waste time and millions of dollars. “To call for that since we won so big in South Carolina it’s really a waste of taxpayer money. And it would be taxpayer money. I mean who else is going to pay for that? I mean, we won three senate seats, we won 2 house seats, we turned back over a congressional seat, and Trump won 55 percent in the state and 65 in Lexington county. What are we looking for?” Shealy said.

Full Article: Lexington County GOP calls for 2020 election audit, confusing GOP Lexington State Senator

South Carolina elections director steps down three months earlier than planned. Here’s why | Joseph Bustos/The State

October 5, 2021

South Carolina’s state elections director, who announced her resignation in May after she pushed for COVID-19 health precautions before the 2020 election, has stepped down three months ahead of her original leave date. Marci Andino’s last day on the job was Friday, Oct. 1, said state elections’ spokesman Chris Whitmire, adding she’s accepted a new job as the director of the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, part of the nonprofit Center for Internet Security. Andino notified the five-member State Elections Commission of her planned move on Sept. 15, though she had initially planned to stay on through the end of December. Voter Services Director Howard Knabb will serve as interim director until commissioners find a permanent replacement, Whitmire said. ... Last year, and what ultimately led to her departure, Andino pushed for expanded access to absentee early voting and mail-in options as a way to limit the spread of COVID-19. She also asked lawmakers to allow voters to request absentee ballots online and to remove the witness signature requirement on absentee ballots. Full Article: SC elections director steps down early to take new job | The State

South Carolina: Horry County election officials rescan thousands of absentee ballots after USB device malfunction | Jennifer Roberts/WMBF

November 9, 2020

The South Carolina Election Commission instructed the Horry County Registration & Elections office to rescan absentee ballots following a “data transfer issue,” officials said. “ES&S, the scanning equipment manufacturer, assisted the elections office throughout the day with the procedure which began this morning [Thursday] around 10 a.m.,” Horry County Government said in a press release. South Carolina Elections Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said all legally filed ballots must be counted. He added the only way to report those is to rescan them. Officials say the rescanning will not impact voters' absentee ballots in any way. The move comes after Horry County Director of Elections Sandy Martin said on Wednesday afternoon, there were anywhere between 15,000 to 20,000 votes from mail-in absentee ballots that had yet to be counted in Horry County. On Thursday, her team focused on ensuring thousands of those ballots were rescanned. Martin attributed the delay to a “technical issue." She said after scanning all of the ballots Tuesday night, including mail-in ballots, they ran into a problem around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

Full Article: Horry County election officials rescan thousands of absentee ballots after USB device malfunction

South Carolina: Lancaster County ‘mislabeled’ thumb drive causes 20,000 ballot recount | Morgan Newell/WBTV

November 5, 2020

Absentee ballots in one South Carolina county had to be recounted after a mislabeled thumb drive could not be connected with a voting machine. The 20,000 ballot recount took so long the results did not come in until 6:30 Wednesday morning. Every single absentee in-person vote got counted because this was human error rather than a computer’s mistake. Mary Ann Hudson, Elections Director in Lancaster County, has been running the election process in Lancaster County for years. So when she made a mistake on election night, she knew exactly what needed to be done. “It was just something that I had to make right," says Hudson. “It was my job, it’s my responsibility, it was my human error.” The error? Hudson mislabeled a thumb drive for one of the absentee ballot voting machines. It means the results could have been off by hundreds if not thousands. “We could have tried to decide that maybe these ballots went to this thumb drive and these ballots went to this thumb drive but it was an all-or-none situation," she says.

Full Article: Lancaster County ‘mislabeled’ thumb drive causes 20,000 ballot recount

South Carolina: Dorchester Coounty counting 14,600 absentee ballots by hand due to ballot printing error | Zak Koeske/The State

November 5, 2020

Dorchester County, which was unable to count about 14,600 mail-in absentee ballots Tuesday night due to a printing error, has a phalanx of people hand counting the ballots Wednesday, officials said. State Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said about 40 people were working to hand count the ballots early Wednesday afternoon and that more would be joining them throughout the day. There is currently no estimate of when they will be finished, he said. Dorchester County elections director Todd Billman said Tuesday that officials discovered the ballot printing error Tuesday morning, after beginning to open the ballot envelopes and realizing they could not be read by ballot scanning machines due to incorrect timing marks. Despite the delay, Billman and the Election Commission have reassured voters that all votes will eventually be counted. “We want everyone to know that this will be an open process, we’ll keep you guys notified along the whole way of how we’re doing,” Billman said Tuesday. “I’m very thankful that we have a lot of workers here ready to make sure that your vote counts and that your vote is counted accurately.”

Full Article: Dorchester Co. counting 14,600 absentee ballots by hand | The State

South Carolina bought voting machines from ES&S despite years of issues | Chiara Eisner/The State

November 2, 2020

It’s difficult to talk for long about voting technology and election security in South Carolina before hearing the name of Dr. Duncan Buell. Since the state invested in its first electronic voting computers in 2004, Buell, a professor of computer science and engineering at the University of South Carolina, has studied the performance of the technology in the region. He is one of only a couple of South Carolinians who belong to the Election Verification Network, a group of interdisciplinary voting experts from around the country, and serves on the Richland County Board of Voter Registration and Elections. So when he discovered that a panel of five people with limited technical expertise had been entrusted to choose the new technology that S.C. voters would use for many elections to come, Buell asked to present his knowledge at one of the group’s meetings in 2019, which were coordinated in part by the State Election Commission (SEC). He was added, then mysteriously taken off the agenda, he says. “That’s not in the citizens’ best interest, but he’s the sharpest critic (the SEC) had,” said Frank Heindel, a retired businessman from Charleston and self-described citizen activist who has requested hundreds of pages of documents from the government about S.C. elections. “I don’t think they wanted to hear it.” The decision is just one example of how for years, choices about voting technology in South Carolina have been made behind closed doors, say lawmakers, citizens and voting scholars. Scientists believe the technology products S.C. officials ultimately selected, including the voting machines now being used in the 2020 presidential election, have not always met the “gold standard” for safety.

Full Article: SC bought voting machines from ES&S despite years of issues | The State

South Carolina judge rules that local election boards cannot reject ballots due to mismatched signatures | Michelle Liu/Associated Press

October 28, 2020

A federal judge in South Carolina ruled Tuesday that local election boards cannot reject voters’ absentee ballots on the basis of mismatched signatures and must review and reprocess previously rejected ballots for the upcoming general election. The temporary injunction comes after a recent survey by the South Carolina State Election Commission discovered a handful of county election boards were conducting signature matching on ballots, though the state has no laws, rules or regulations on the practice. U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel of Charleston wrote Tuesday that counties that wish to continue matching signatures on absentee ballots must seek approval of the court first. Voter outreach groups filed the lawsuit earlier this month, as the significant number of first-time absentee voters this election has brought due process issues to the forefront, said Christe McCoy-Lawrence, co-president of the League of Women Voters’ South Carolina chapter. The suit sought a permanent procedure for elections officials to notify voters and allow them to fix ballots with signature issues.

Full Article: Judge: SC cannot reject ballots due to mismatched signatures

South Carolina: Election officials agree to provide prepaid postage for absentee ballots | Jamie Lovegrove/Post and Courier

July 10, 2020

Return postage for all mailed absentee ballots in South Carolina’s 2020 general election will be prepaid after state election officials agreed to change the process, resolving one of several voting-related issues Democrats sued the state over. Several Democratic Party organizations and individual voters complained in federal court earlier this year about the requirement that voters pay for postage to return their absentee ballots by mail, arguing it presents an undue burden on the right to vote and effectively serves as a poll tax. In a joint agreement filed Wednesday, state Election Commission officials said they intend to provide prepaid postage on all absentee ballot return envelopes this year, regardless of the number of voters who qualify and take advantage of absentee voting by mail, eliminating the need for any further legal action on the issue. Shaundra Young Scott, the S.C. Democratic Party’s director of voter protection, said the party was pleased with the commission’s decision and hopes it will lead to a broader expansion of absentee ballots and vote by mail.

South Carolina: Democrats prep more lawsuits as Legislature punts on absentee voting expansion amid pandemic | Palmetto Politics | Jamie Lovegrove/Post and Courier

June 25, 2020

South Carolina Democrats are planning to file more lawsuits challenging the state’s absentee voting limitations during the coronavirus pandemic after lawmakers declined to expand ballot options for the general election during their brief legislative session this week. Republican leaders said they would consider taking action when they return in September if the pandemic is still at large, as health officials expect. They said they wanted to limit their brief time in the Statehouse this week to distributing federal funds for coronavirus relief. Democratic lawmakers questioned the decision to wait. “Why put off until tomorrow what we could do today?” asked state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg. House members voted down two proposed amendments Wednesday to the coronavirus relief package that would have expanded absentee voting for November, largely along party lines.

South Carolina: Voting problems in primary prompt fears about November election | Kirk Brown and Conor Hughes/Greenville News

June 12, 2020

Calissa Brooks and Contrina Young are sisters who live together in Greenville, but they said they were given different ballots after arriving at a branch library on Anderson Road to vote in Tuesday's primary. "We didn't have the same options, and we live at the same address," Brooks said Wednesday. "You show up to vote and then you can't get the correct vote — that's very frustrating." Young said that when she asked questions about the different ballots, a poll worker "brushed her off." Other voters shared similar stories with The Greenville News, including Susann Hellams Griffin. She said that although she and her son live in state House District 6, they were given ballots at Pendleton Elementary School that included candidates from state House District 8. "I am horrified by it, frankly," said Griffin, who didn't realize that she and her son received the wrong ballots until after they left the polling place. She said she called the Anderson County elections office and a staff member confirmed the mistake.

South Carolina: Election officials decry ‘confusion’ during primary | Meg Kinnard/Associated Press

June 11, 2020

Citing “extreme wait times and confusion at polling places” in some precincts in and around South Carolina’s capital city during Tuesday’s primary, state election officials said they are sending help before upcoming runoffs, including poll manager training and equipment testing. “The South Carolina State Election Commission is disappointed with the conduct of yesterday’s primaries in Richland County,” the Commission said in a release Wednesday. “We know election officials and poll managers were faced with the extraordinarily difficult task of conducting an election in a pandemic. But yet again, voters were unnecessarily subjected to extreme wait times and confusion at polling places.” The COVID-19 outbreak - which has infected more than 15,000 in South Carolina, killing more than 560 - created some questions as to how Tuesday’s elections would be carried out. In an effort both to alleviate numbers at the polls and assuage voters’ concerns about contagion, lawmakers recently passed a law allowing universal absentee voting because of the pandemic. A federal judge also temporarily removed a policy requiring that a witness sign an absentee voter’s ballot. But the relatively low-key state primaries in South Carolina still saw long lines at a few precincts, especially in Richland County, as polling places were combined because many longtime workers at sites didn’t take an assignment this year because of concerns of contracting the coronavirus.

South Carolina: Voters report races missing from ballots at Richland polls during primary | Greg Hadley/The State

June 10, 2020

On an unprecedented Election Day, reports of problems at polling stations across 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. 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.”