Actual video sent to me by constituent November 2012 at Dutch Fork Middle School.
With June primaries just weeks away, and with the ongoing drama that lingers in the Richland County Elections Office (now back – at least for now – to a Voter Registration piece and a separate Elections piece), I want to continue to keep you informed.
For those who haven’t read Nathan’s News in the past several months, here’s a link that can help you catch up on what has happened, what I’ve been doing to help fix, and what possibly can be happening soon.
Tonight, I’m sharing information I requested earlier this week from the Elections Office.
Click this link to see Richland County precinct names, locations, number of workers that should be there on election day, number of voters and number of machines that should be there on election day
That’s a good plan – as long as it’s executed.
Of course, based on the fiasco we saw before, there are several questions that we hope will have positive answers this time around.
* Will we have long waits? (Precinct sizes have been reduced, we have enough machines, and it appears there is a plan in place – see link above – to help reduce wait time. Let’s hope it’s executed)
* How will we know where to vote this time? (I checked on this as well this week and have been told notifications will start being mailed within the next two weeks. Check your mail box and be sure to READ your card to see the precinct name – it could be new – and the LOCATION)
* Will we have enough volunteers? (Several poll workers shared with me they would not work again after what they lived through last time. Add to those concerns, the increase in number of precincts and getting the needed number of volunteers may be a huge challenge)
* What will turnout be? (Talk about voter suppression: people having to wait for five hours and then votes not being counted and then all the other drama ever since. There will be many that sit home. Of course, primaries don’t bring out large crowds anyway; but even less may show up because of the lack of confidence in the county)
* Will all the ballots be counted? (Obviously a serious concern)
* What is the status of the SLED investigation into Howard Jackson’s allegations and information? (I have little patience for things; but unfortunately things of this magnitude take time. I’m sure when everything has been reviewed, Chief Keel and his department will share what they have learned. What will they learn and what will be the outcome from that?)
One big question that has been on everyone’s mind for months is what will the county delegation do with the Elections Board? As I’ve shared previously, I hope my colleagues will join me in replacing them all with new members . Stay tuned….our delegation should be meeting in the next few weeks.