CAYCE, S.C. — The city of Cayce voted against a measure that would open an early voting center for Lexington County's November 2023 elections.
According to the Cayce City Manager, the Lexington County elections office approached the city to use a community center, as an early voting location this upcoming November. The county requested this information before a board meeting on Monday where they plan to discuss early voting.
Cayce mayor, Elise Partin voted in favor of the measure citing the importance of creating a space for voters on election day.
"It's important that we have early voting that's accessible. Our citizens have gotten used to that, and they expect that, in all of the elections. So, if they go to an early voting place, and it's not open, they're going to be confused and that's not what we want to do." Partin says
According to the city, the cost of opening an early voting center is $12,312. District Three Councilman Hunter Sox, whose seat is not up for election this year, voted against the motion. He says they were only given this notice less than a week before this week's city council meeting.
"I think that it's unfair for the county to come to us in the 9th hour and ask us to pay for this. I think there's a lot left on the line and on the table. I wanted to propose an alternative solution so that we could hear from them on Monday and then have a special meeting next week to make our decision." He adds, "The county should pay for it. and brought to us sooner."
According to the Lexington County director of elections, Lenice Shoemaker, other municipalities were given the same request. This November's elections are only for a handful of municipalities, specifically those with mayoral or town and city council seats up for vote.
"If they desire to have more centers, I can have up to seven. It's just a cost for all those different ways of voting, for me having those centers open."
According to the SCVotes website, in 2022, 561,000 early voter ballots were cast throughout the state, over 25% of the total ballots cast. She explains anyone can vote at any of the other early voting centers regardless of which municipality they're registered in.
"Just by law, I'm definitely going to have early voting for everyone and absentee to those who qualify."
In Tuesday's meeting, the council also approved over $52,000 for the renovation of a water pump and $63,000 for the purchase of a police car. For partin, the $12,000 price tag seems small in comparison.
Patrin is confident it's a vote that could be fixed, or changed after the county's meeting on Monday.
She says, "We know we were going to be spending $12,000. That was the max> I think that the council will do the right thing when we meet again about it."