Police at polling places, stolen candidate signs: Election anxieties in Beaufort Co.
Tuesday’s presidential election is causing a swell of emotions around the country: Beaufort County, S.C., included.
Fears of election interference nationwide are one reason the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office is beefing up its presence on Election Day.
The agency is sending “additional personnel in proximity to polling places” so that they can respond quickly if something occurs, according to Maj. Bob Bromage.
“Election interference will not be tolerated,” he said.
There are nearly 60 polling locations on Election Day in Beaufort County, according to the Board of Voter Registration and Elections website.
Bromage said officers will be nearby but not on top of the polling places. Officers will be ready for election night as well, he said.
Anxiety
Steven Manley, owner of the Bluffton gun shop Plantation Iron, said his sales have jumped 50 to 60% in the past six months, and he has sold out of inventory a few times.
Close to Election Day, customers are coming in to buy guns more than usual, he said. Most of them are “people who watch a lot of news.”
“Probably more the 45 (years old) and above crowd that are more concerned. Not as many young people,” said Manley.
Gun sales typically go up in the U.S. before and after an election. But 2020 is likely to break records, as Americans stocked up after racial justice protests erupted during summer.
They are now anxious about violence after Election Day if there are disputes over who wins, according to a pre-election University of California Berkeley poll.
South Carolina has seen an 88% jump in gun sales in September 2020 compared to September 2019, gun data from The Trace shows.
Shotguns and handguns have been the biggest sellers at Plantation Iron, said Manley.
He said he doesn’t ask customers why they’re buying but said lately “more people feel comfortable having protection for their home.”
Frustration
Barbara Nielsen, who works in communications for the Beaufort County GOP, said Republican election signs are frequent targets of theft and vandalism.
Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, and Nancy Mace signs are mainly the signs she’s noticed have been tampered with, she said.
“Local candidates don’t get affected as much as national ones,” she said.
The signs, she said, are mostly being taken along Buckwalter Parkway and on S.C. 170.
Nielsen said the trend is frustrating. “Those signs cost candidates a lot of money.”
Under South Carolina law, stealing or vandalizing election signs is a misdemeanor punishable with a $100 fine.
On the other side of the political spectrum, a Hilton Head woman who works for the local Democratic club called the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office to complain about “RE-ELECT” stickers put on the 45-mph speed limit signs on U.S. 278, according to an Oct. 21 police report.
The deputy told her that because the signs are in the Department of Transportation’s jurisdiction, the sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything.
“The Democratic people are getting harassed for all the vandalism they are doing around the world, but because she thinks Republicans did this nothing is going to happen to them,” the deputy wrote.
Cautious optimism
Poll-watching is a tradition in American politics. And it’s happening in greater numbers in Bluffton during this high-engagement election.
Forty-three volunteers with the Bluffton Democratic Club are set to watch the polls across Bluffton’s precincts on Election Day, according to Justin Jarrett, the club’s vice president.
Jarrett said they have all been trained and are not poll-watchers in the sense of intimidating voters. Their goal is to ensure that everyone who can vote has their vote counted.
“We are simply there to ensure that there’s a fair election,” he said. “It’s not at all an adversarial role.”
The Beaufort County GOP also has poll-watching efforts. When asked about them, Kevin Hennelly, the group’s chairman, declined to comment on strategy.
“If you want to find out about our poll-watching strategy, I’d just advise you to go to the polls on Election Day,” he said. “Then you’ll find out.”
Jarrett said he’s been encouraged lately. Beaufort County elections employees have been helpful in solving voters’ issues in early voting, he said.
Galen Miller, president of the Hilton Head MLK Committee for Justice, is also optimistic. The group has been pushing to get younger people of color to vote in Beaufort County, citing low turnout in 2018.
Miller told The Island Packet he hasn’t heard of any issues barring people from voting so far. He said he is encouraged by the long lines at polling places.
“I think people are really strong in their hearts, and they feel that this year’s election is very, very important that we all get out to vote, no matter which party you are voting for,” said Miller. “It’s instrumentally important.”
