Seen and heard around town on Election Day

Some local politicians didn’t have to worry about whether they’d still have their jobs after Tuesday’s election. They were the lucky ones, with no challengers.

Among them was 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, who ran unopposed for his first full term.

He was in the office by 9 a.m.

“The numbers aren’t in, but I like my chances,” Stone said Tuesday afternoon.

With almost all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Stone had 99.5 percent of the vote.

At the coroner’s office, there were a few jokes about deputy coroner Ed Allen’s first — albiet uncontested — run for the coroner’s job.

“Oh, he was opposed,” joked his assistant, Janet Horton. “I wrote my name in.”

Tuesday night, Allen also had 99.5 percent of the vote.

Some voters wondered why Bluffton’s mayoral candidates sported campaign paraphernalia at polling places. Candidates Lisa Sulka and Charlie Wetmore visited precincts wearing their campaign buttons.

Election law bans campaign items in polling places. But both candidates said they were allowed to display their names only.

“I wore my name on a sticker and nothing else,” Wetmore said.

Sulka said the only precinct she went into was the one where she voted. She said she checked the laws on Beaufort County’s Web site before putting her button on.

“On the site, it does say you can wear a name, but no position,” she said.

Not far from Hilton Head Island High School, some students were using their day off to campaign.

Jo’Vanna Davis and Natalie Bobien are 16, too young to vote.

Both, however, are members of the school’s Young Democrats Club and supporters of Sen. Barack Obama.

While some of their friends might have been sleeping in, they waved Obama signs and cheered when passersby honked their horns.

Being African Americans, Bobien and Davis said having Barack as a candidate “is beautiful and comforting.”

“It’s beautiful because a lot of us seem to get discouraged a lot of times thinking things can’t happen for us,” Davis said. “It’s hard for us to be a minority, but watching him we have no excuses.”

Chick-fil-A and Starbucks in Bluffton waited on a steady stream of hungry and thirsty voters who lined up for free food and drink Tuesday.

Chick-fil-A offered a free chicken sandwich to those who showed up with “I Voted” stickers; Starbucks offered a free tall coffee to anyone who asked.

After waiting in a line for more than an hour, Bluffton resident Ian Duncan decided to grab his tall shot of caffeine before heading over to Chick-fil-A for lunch.

He enjoyed the voter courtesy as he watched the Democratic process.

“It was exciting to see so many people show up,” said Duncan, who voted a straight Republican ticket. “Four years ago, I remember going and voting and I didn’t have to wait in line. And it was actually kind of exciting to see the long lines, seeing the turnout.”

Angie Elliott waited in line an hour and a half before finally getting inside the First Baptist Church polling place in downtown Bluffton.

She works at a bank on Hilton Head Island and drove directly to her polling place after work to vote in what she says is an “especially important election.”

“In my field of work it’s just a really huge time, I think,” she said. “And I really think every single vote counts, so I made sure I was here this year because of where we are at economically.”

Elliott said she’d wait to vote no matter how long the line.

“If we had a recount, if we had to revote tomorrow I would definitely do it because it matters that much to me,” she said as her eyes began to tear.

With a half-hour left until the polls closed, clerk Linda Collins said she expected people to continue voting at the First Baptist Church until at least 8 p.m.

“It takes about an hour to get through the line,” she said. “The line closes at 7, so anybody in line at 7’o’clock will be able to vote.”

Collins, an election official since 2000, said Tuesday’s turnout was three times what it has been in past elections she has worked.

Though it had started raining outside the church, voters waited patiently. Some huddled against family members as it drizzled.

Others put on sweatshirts, which they found weren’t needed once inside the packed and heated polling place.

Carl Bergmann and Almut Ryan spent about an hour and 15 minutes in line and still hadn’t cast their ballots. They didn’t know each other, but passed the time chatting.

“It really helped,” Ryan said. “It sure makes a difference (in the wait time) and we didn’t get rained on.”

Bergmann said he has not voted in several years but thought this year was worth the wait in line.

“I’m tired of what’s going on in the country,” he said. “I’m ready for some changes.”