COLUMBIA, S.C. — One week after hearing from Richland County Election Commission leaders about problems from registration cards to the place where the polling machines are stored, there has been some progress to get things on track ahead of the statewide election on November 8th, just 54 days away.
"The county administrator, actually the operation maintenance department, they sent out some guys to come look at it," Richland County Board of Elections Interim Director Terry Graham said.
Graham said the leak was caused by condensation from the storage unit's air conditioner.
"We don't see any leaks and no water on our floor because I just left the warehouse about 20 minutes ago, so there wasn't any water in the floor today," Graham said.
While the problem is fixed, for now, the interim director and county administrator are actively making plans to move the polling machines and team to a whole new facility. "Also for the entire office because we have outgrown this office," he said.
Graham said the office search will have to take a backseat until after the statewide election in November. He said the board has a bigger problem to face - getting more poll workers.
Chris Whitmire with the South Carolina Elections Commission said they can help with this.
"Some of the things we can do to help a county board recruit poll managers is number one, we provide an online poll manager application," Whitmire said.
The Commission can also help by providing a county-specific PSA that can be played over the radio to help with recruitment.
Whitmire said as of right now Graham has not asked for that service. In addition to recruitment assistance, there will be more commission personnel at Richland County voting sites to assist if anything goes wrong on November 8th.
If you're interested in becoming a poll worker visit the Richland County website for instruction on how to get that process started.