Letter: Voting director owes no apology

In the Nov. 10 paper, Marie Smalls, the top Beaufort County elections official, apologized for voting lines extending for long periods of time. She has nothing for which to apologize because the circumstances were beyond her control: there was a much larger turnout than expected. We know, for example, that one day prior to the election, more than 600 people voted “absentee in person” at the elections office in Bluffton.

I have had the honor and privilege of being an election manager for Beaufort County since I moved here in 2010. Mrs. Smalls is one of the most knowledgeable individuals I know when it comes to the election process in South Carolina; yet even she could not have predicted the enormous turnout that occurred. There are always glitches of some kind in every election, and I have watched Mrs. Smalls remain cool, calm, and collected through it all.

We found at the precinct where I worked that the use of numbered tickets that allowed voters to sit rather than stand in long lines worked well. Yes, some still complained, but those were few and far between, and we all know that there will always be complainers.

This was my second presidential election in South Carolina to serve as an election manager, my sixth total (the others being in Virginia). I never received the kind of training in Virginia that Mrs. Smalls provides here. Rock on, Mrs. Smalls — and don’t apologize for the tremendous turnout.

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Letter: Voting director owes no apology."