South Carolina's Bad Weather Doesn't Keep Voters Away

Columbia, South Carolina -- The day was cloudy and blustery, a slight drizzle of rain was falling. As I arrived at my local polling place around 10:32 a.m., a line of about 120 people stood, arms wrapped tightly around them to ward of the weather. Though it was not too cold, the breeze brought the chill to those standing. The people waiting commented that the line was samller than they thought it would be, and it did seem to move at a fairly mild pace. A few mentioned that the news had said the best time to go was between 9am and noon.

"I was here when the polls opened this morning," one young woman said, as she alternated between talking and corralling her two young children. "It was pretty long. I waited an hour and a half but had to go. This is much better."

The assembled voters ranged from gray haired older woman to green haired college students. A wide mix of the community were gathered on this historic election. The atmosphere was more of a community gathering than a contentious election. Most talk ranged from the latest book they were reading to who saw who last summer at the drama camp. The closest to any political talk discussed was about the merits of absentee balloting versus the 7am to 7pm single day voting.

"They should change voting hours from midnight to midnight," one retired gentleman quipped. "But then the news people wouldn't have so much fun."

"The logical thing to do," his wife pronounced. "would be to hold the election over a week long."

"Since when did the government do anything logical," another man joked. Everyone laughed lightly in agreement.

There were also a couple complaints about robo-calls.

Jeff Knowles, running for a seat on the local school board, walked down the line and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Jeff Knowles. I'm running for school board. I appreciate your coming out to vote." Some people he seemed to know and stopped for a moment; others he simply shook hands and moved on. Though as a candidate he was legally allowed to wear a badge identifying who he was, Knowles was dressed in casual attire, light brown jacket and dark slacks . . . no tie. Very subdued and civil. A far cry from what would have been the same scene in Philadelphia.

In fact, the only campaign signage was way out at the street entrance to the road leading down to the school. And a lone old lady, standing at the proper distance from the voting place, holding an sign for the incumbent state Representative, and an umbrella.

As I stood in line, I noted curbside voting being utilized by a frail looking woman of advanced years. I queried the poll worker if there had been much call for this relatively new service.

"We had a few here and there," he said. "But then there was a whole bunch that came through at one time, I guess we've had about 35 people use the curbside voting."

"Any problems" I asked.

"Not really. We had this one person who saw we were doing the curbside ballot. They had started to park, but then pulled out and came up to us. We explained that this was only for people unable to walk, and he didn't qualify. He went back to his parking place and got back in line."

Once inside, the single line split into five alphabetical lines. A through D", "E" through "K", "L" through "R", and S" through "Z". The pinch at the door was designed to keep people organized, noted Richard, the polling manager. "We had a little bit of a rush when we opened this morning and about 30 people came in and getting ahead of each other. But all in all things have gone well."

After verifying my status as a legal registered voter, something I appreciated, I was then directed to another line. From here it was onto the electronic voting machine and my vote was cast.

I spoke with Richard on the way out and he told me that he had nine machines and there had only been "one mechanical hiccup, which Larry (the technical assist gentleman) is working on right now." He went on to explain that his polling place was at capacity and running smoothly. Then he beamed and introduced his young volunteers. There was a young lady, a freshman at the local high school, and a young man, a senior from Chapin High School. I asked them if they were learning anything from the experience.

"Oh yes," she bubbled. "a lot."

"Um," the young man responded, somewhat glassy eyed. "They tell me to go here and get this. And I go over there and get that."

"A bit overwhelming?" I asked.

"Exhausting," he said, smiling. He told me he was going to Clemson next year to study civil engineering. Then he excused himself as he was being summoned for yet another errand.

"We also have a poly-sci major from USC (University of South Carolina. She's over there." I looked in the direction he pointed and saw a young woman courteously escorting people from the line to the polling machine and offering aide as needed.

It was apparent that Richard was excited to have young people so actively involved in the election process. "It really great," he agreed.

Upon leaving, I noted the same mix of people still arriving to cast their ballot. Talking and interacting and generally happy to be here. And, no matter the winner, I felt a stab of pride when I think of all the places in this world that this process would either be under threat of loss of life or be non-existent altogether.