COLUMBIA, S.C. — There are isolated reported problems at some polling precincts in the state on the day of the big South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary.
Polling locations are open until 7 p.m. Saturday. If you have have comments about your voting location, you can text WLTX with those concerns at 803-776-9508.
Some people we have spoken with have told News19 that they have had trouble with machines, ballots, and long lines. Some said the voting machines were not working. At at least one precinct, people were being asked to put their paper ballots in a drawer under the machine so that a poll worker could scan them in.
Most voters, however, have said they've had no problems whatsoever.
South Carolina rolled out new voting machines statewide last year to replace the old electronic devices that had been in place for over 15 years. The new machines allow a person to cast their ballot on a touchscreen. After it's finished, a paper ballot is printed out and a voter can double-check that their vote matches what they inputed. The voter then takes the ballot to a scanner, where it is officially recorded.
They were used in last November's municipal elections, as well as other special elections, but voter turnout is much less for those contests. This is the biggest test so far.
Democratic leaders said Saturday afternoon they feel that voter turnout is up over 2016.
State Democratic Party Chair Trav Robertson said the state's election commission told him 80,000 absentee ballots have been cast. He's says that's an increase of between 28-30,000 over 2016.
As expected, the non-white vote is a significant factor, as he estimates between 55 to 62 percent voters are non-white. He credits some of that to an increased push to register voters.
Robertson said 370,000 cast ballots in the 2016 Democratic primary. The highest was number was back in 2008, when over 570,000 participated.
If you need to find out what precinct you vote in, go to the State Election Commission website here. On the homepage, look for "Check My Voter Registration" link. Click on it and follow the instructions.
To find out where your precinct is voting in the S.C. Democratic Primary, you can click HERE to get the information from the S.C. Election Commission by County.
You can also call your county voter registration office. You can find a list county voter registration offices HERE.
How to Use the New Voting Machines
The following candidates are running in the S.C. Democratic Primary:
- Joe Biden (JoeBiden.com)
- Bernie Sanders (BernieSanders.com)
- Pete Buttigieg (PeteForAmerica.com)
- Tulsi Gabbard (Tulsi2020.com)
- Amy Klobuchar (AmyKlobuchar.com)
- Elizabeth Warren (ElizabethWarren.com)
- Tom Steyer (TomSteyer.com)
Andrew Yang (withdrawn), John Delaney (withdrawn), Deval Patrick (withdrawn), Michael Bennet (withdrawn) and Cory Booker (withdrawn) will still appear on the ballot, however, because absentee ballots were already sent out before they withdrew.
There can be candidates that are running nationally for the party’s nomination that are not participating in the South Carolina Presidential Primary, Mike Bloomberg is one example. The ballot features all candidates that filed in South Carolina and who did not withdraw before ballots were finalized.
Full Primary Resources:
Latest Results: South Carolina primary real-time election results page
Election Alerts: Download the WLTX app here or text APP to 803-776-9508.
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