Long lines leave some voters frustrated but determined to be heard, make history

Long lines at some Beaufort County polling places left some voters frustrated and waiting up to two hours to vote Tuesday.

At Lord of Life Lutheran Church, a polling place for several precincts in the Buckwalter area of Bluffton, there were about 100 people in line at 6:50 a.m. By the time the doors opened at 7 a.m., the line extended up the church's driveway to Buckwalter Parkway, and cars circled the parking lot looking for spaces. At 7 p.m., there were still long lines.

Two Bluffton voters, Paul and Rochelle Armola, said they arrived at the church a few minutes before polls closed at 7 p.m., but didn't get to the end of the line until just minutes after the cutoff. After heated discussions with poll worker Ken Oberg, they were informed they could cast a provisional ballot.

“This is what Trump was talking about,” Paul Armola said.

“I will not be disenfranchised,” Rochelle Armola said.

Christ Lutheran Church on Hilton Head Island had about 100 people left in line at 7 p.m. Poll workers said machines from other polling locations that had completed voting were moved to polls that still had voters.

This year’s historic presidential race pushed the number of registered voters up. The county has 113,000 registered voters this year, according to election officials. That number is up by 4,000 from the 2012 general election, said Marie Smalls, director of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections of Beaufort County.

At 8:48 p.m. Tuesday, with 67 out of 92 precincts in the county reporting, the South Carolina Election Commission put county turnout at 36 percent.

But Smalls said 2016 had the potential to set a county voter turnout record. She called the 2008 general election “historical” in terms of turn out, and said this year exceeds it. Smalls said the voter turnout for 2008 was 76 percent and 68 percent in 2012.

In Bluffton, Kristin Dixon said she waited nearly two hours to vote at Pritchardville Elementary School.

Terra Scoggins, who brought her four-year-old son with her to vote at Bluffton Library, faced a similar wait.

“I came in good spirits,” she said, “but if you’re waiting that long with a toddler with you, it can be a little frustrating.”

Ron Clifford, Beaufort County Election Commission Chairman, said the waits were partly due to the large turnout.

“This is the most people who I have ever seen turn out,” Clifford said. “I have been doing this 13 to 14 years.”

Waits at Christ Lutheran Church also were partly due to the condensing of four precincts into one building, Clifford said. He said two of the precincts are typically held at St. Luke's Church but that building is under renovation.

“I feel like I just got a root canal,” Jerry McCaghren said as he left the church after a two-and-a-half hour wait.

This election marked the first time scanners were used, poll clerk Tom Conner said. Instead of paper registration, poll workers simply scanned a voter’s driver’s license.

Volunteers registered two people per minute, he said.

Other reports from Hilton Head suggested poll workers underestimated the time voters were spending in line.

Voters were lined up outside the door of the Beaufort County voter registration office in Burton with address change questions Tuesday afternoon. Many residents who had not registered by the deadline came to the office Tuesday morning and were given provisional ballots, Smalls said.

Across the state, officials saw similar turnout numbers, according to South Carolina Election Commission spokesman, Chris Whitmire.

“Just anecdotally, we’re hearing reports of heavy turnout throughout the state,” he said. “(But we) haven’t had any persistent or consistent issues preventing voters from casting their ballot.”

Whitmire said while officials hadn’t had any major issues, the commission had heard reports from precincts of issues with voter who had moved and hadn’t updated their address before the election. He said many of these voters were voting for the first time in a long time, and some of them might not even be able to vote.

“That is common in a presidential election, or an election that has high turnout,” he said. “You’re more likely to have these voters voting that don’t vote.”

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Long lines leave some voters frustrated but determined to be heard, make history."