PoliTick-Tock

Few cast ballots in Horry's District 4

The turnout at two precincts in Horry County's District 4 was low on Tuesday, even though there was a slew of federal and local primaries on the ballot, poll workers said.

Incumbent Republican Councilman Mike Ryan was facing a challenge from Gary Loftus for his Horry County Council seat. Primaries for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and the county coroner and treasurer positions were also on the ballot.

At the Marlowe precinct at St. James High School, 355 people cast their ballots by 5 p.m. in a precinct that had 3,500 voters, said Jack Gregory, a poll worker. The precinct was only using six of its thirteen voting machines, he said.

"It looks like overkill, but when you boil it down you've got to get ready for the onslaught," Gregory said. "This is good practice for November."

Gregory also said the legs on two of the machines were defective and poll workers had to fix them before voting began. Jon Bonsignor, the president of the South Strand Republican Club and the poll clerk for the precinct, said the machines opened at 7:45 a.m., 45 minutes late.

He said 15 people voted on paper ballots before the machines were ready. Bonsignor said he thought more people would vote, especially because of the heated campaign between Ryan and Loftus, but said negative campaigning in all area races may have turned people away.

"People were turned off from the negative campaigning," he said. "Each candidate running for office was criticizing the other and they weren't talking about the issues."

At the Burgess 2 precinct, which is partly in District 4, about 270 people -- or about 8.5 percent of voters -- had cast ballots by 5 p.m. The precinct has 3,200 registered voters, said David Patrick, the poll clerk.

"I'd hoped there'd be more," he said. "You hate to see your numbers below 10 percent. But as a primary, it's not surprising. Disappointing, but not surprising."

Sheilagh Nye, 76, who voted at the Marlowe precinct with her husband, Bruce, did not say who she cast her ballot for. But she indicated that she was disappointed with the way things were going in Washington, and her husband said he was worried about high gas prices.

Sheilagh Nye wondered aloud why the Bush Administration appeared loathe to say the country was in the midst of a recession.

"Nothing ever improves until you admit that it's wrong," said Nye, from Rochester, N.Y. "If the people in Washington admit it's wrong, they can make things right."

Turnout high in District 9, poll workers say

About noon on Tuesday, Harry Jernigan glanced at a list of voters in the one-room building that was the Jernigan's Crossroads precinct in District 9. He's been a poll worker here for at least 10 years, he said, partly because the precinct bears his last name.

"For us, it's been better this morning than normal," said Jernigan, adding that about 55 people had cast ballots in the precinct, where 500 were registered.

"If we get half of them, we'll do good," said Albert Lewis, 81, another poll worker who was seated on a faded chair.

Jernigan, 73, used to run a country store in the building, which now held dusty furniture and had insulation tearing from the roof. Across the road were wheat fields and a crumbling wooden barn.

Poll workers at the Ebenezer precinct and the East Loris precinct also said they were seeing high numbers of voters. Incumbent Councilman Paul Prince is running against challenger Mark Causey in the Republican primary, and Ulysses DeWitt and Brian Johnson are facing off in the Democratic primary.

"We've had one of the best turnouts here ever," said Shirley Martin, a poll manager in the East Loris precinct. "Three hundred and thirty-five voted here in 2006, and we've already had 152 this morning."

At the Ebenezer precinct, poll manager Sylvia Housand said about 130 people had voted by 12:30 p.m., and she was expecting more in the evening. The precinct has about 1,200 voters, she said.

"We always vote," said Pam Dalby, who moved here from Connecticut nearly four years ago, after casting her ballot at the Ebenezer precinct. "It's our right as an American."

Josh Dawsey contributed reporting.

Early polling light in Green Sea

About 40 people cast their ballots in Horry County's Green Sea precinct by 10 a.m. Tuesday, and poll clerk Sara Quinto said she was surprised that more people had not voted.

"We thought there'd be more," said Quinto, adding that about 750 people are registered in the precinct. "But it's still early. It's only 10."

Everything was going smoothly so far, she said.

"The central office did a super job to make sure everything was running," Quinto said. "They checked and double checked."

The voting occurred in a county fire station on S.C. 917. Minette Lovett, another poll worker who has been volunteering for about 10 years, said she felt that it was her "civic duty" to help ensure the election goes off without a hitch.

It's also fun, she said, because she knows most of the voters who come in to cast their ballots.

"That's my neighbor," she said as one voter walked in.

The early morning heat did not deter Ronald and Sherry Shelley from casting their ballots. The couple said they always try and vote in elections, even in primaries for local offices, which typically have a lower turnout than national elections.

"If you don't speak now, you shouldn't say anything later," said Ronald Shelley, 65.

Most polling places running smoothly

Most polling places were running smoothly Tuesday, according to early reports, although a few minor problems were reported.

With close to 700 newly-trained poll workers and 118 different places to vote in across a vast county, a “few hiccups here and there” can be expected on primary day, Horry County Public Information Officer Lisa Bourcier said.

Voters reported early morning glitches such as voting machines not immediately up and running and the delayed opening of one polling place.

Some concerns may be due to voter confusion about their district or why a candidate’s name does not appear on the ballot. Republican Bob Grabowski, for example, would not appear on the ballot since he is running unopposed for County Council #6.

St. James H.S. voters revert to paper ballots

The early voters at St. James High School were offered paper ballots Tuesday. Voting machines weren’t working until about 7:30 a.m. “We’re getting the machines cranked up, but you can vote on paper,” a volunteer told the early voters.

One voter reported getting the wrong paper ballot, but it’s unclear if other voters also encountered that problem.

Voter stream slow, no machine problems in NMB

By 8 a.m. this morning, about 15 voters had come through the door at the Crescent precinct poll in North Myrtle Beach. Poll worker Jean Boseman said she expected today's voter turnout to be a bit on the slow side.

Workers also reported that the electronic voting machines were running smoothly. Volunteer Bill Mullin said he makes sure to reiterate to folks that they have three chances to change their mind before they vote with the electronic ballot.

"The biggest problem is people's fear of touch screens," he said. "They only time you ever see one is if you're using a debit card."

He says walking through each step with the voters has been helpful.

"If you do that with everybody, we have less problems."

"They're getting more used to it," added poll worker Sandy Bruce. "It's such a long time in between when they use it. They don't remember from one time to the next."

Poll worker shortage

The Horry County Voter Registration Office is about 60 poll workers short to cover all of the precincts during the June 10 Primary and the possible June 24 runoff.

A training for poll workers will be held from 1-4 p.m. Monday, June 2 at the Horry County administrative building in Conway. Workers are paid $60 for the training and $60 for working on election day.

If you're interested in working, call Kim at 915 8530. The precincts that need help as of Thursday are as follows:

4,000 paper ballots cast

All the results from Horry County's 118 precincts for yesterday's Republican presidential primary are expected to be in late Sunday afternoon, said Sandy Martin, the director of the county's election office.

About 4,000 paper ballots were cast in the county, Martin said. All the paper ballots were counted last night.

Martin said that election workers still needed to tabulate results from the voting machines from 25 of the county's precincts.

Electronic ballots back in place at Myrtlewood #3

Myrtlewood #3 Poll Manager Cary Williamson said electronic voting machines have been repaired after the polling site at St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church Fellowship Hall used 150 paper ballots.

"We were completely down from 7 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.," he said. "We had to go get some [paper ballots] from other precincts, then we ran out for only about 20 or 30 minutes. We told some people to come back, that's all we could do."

Williamson said a technician came by and corrected the program. Poll worker Beverly Weiner estimated that about 200 residents out of the 1,000 listed active voters had cast their ballots.

Voters were able to move through the site quickly following repairs.

"Okay, that was easy!" said Myrtle Beach resident Joan Lorme.

Huckabee + straw poll = winner

There's something about Mike Huckabee and straw polls....

Here are the just-announced Palmetto Family Council straw poll results:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Palmetto Family Council
Results of Straw Poll Annual Dinner Attendees
September 20, 2007
Huckabee	206	38%
Paul	179	33%
Thompson	43	8%
Brownback	29	5%
Hunter	25	5%
Romney	14	3%
McCain	10	2%
Giuliani	5	1%
Others	28	5%
	539