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Date Published: November 4, 2004
GOP might challenge Morris results
By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com
Election Day problems at the Morris College precinct
could drag out as long as the line of people waiting to vote there
late Tuesday.
Jimmy Byrd, chairman of the Sumter County
Republican Party, said he was consulting with lawyers Wednesday
afternoon to see how the party might challenge the results from that
precinct and possibly the St. John precinct.
Gary Baum, an
election consultant with the South Carolina Election Commission,
said challenges cannot be made to an entire precinct. Challenges
must be made to individual voters, he said.
Poll watchers at
the North HOPE Center, polling place for the Morris College
precinct, kept busy all day Tuesday chasing perceived improprieties.
Republican poll watchers charged that students with
out-of-state licenses were being allowed to vote and that some
provisional ballots early in the day were improperly dropped in the
ballot box without first being sealed in a special
envelope.
Democratic poll watchers complained the Republican
poll watchers were intimidating voters by asking for their names and
telling some people they wouldn't be able to vote, instead of
waiting for the election workers to make a decision about the
voters' eligibility.
The Benedict College precinct in
Richland County experienced similar problems Tuesday.
The
Morris College precinct was the last to turn in its ballots Tuesday
night as poll managers arrived at the Sumter County Courthouse at
10:47 p.m.
Byrd said the tally for the precinct was 704
ballots in the ballot box, but only 635 stubs. Poll workers tear off
the ballot stubs before voters drop their ballots in the box, and
the totals should match. Byrd also said there were 17 empty
provisional ballot envelopes, suggesting that at least 17
provisional ballots were dropped in the box unsealed.
Whether
704 or 635 people voted, those numbers are far fewer than the 1,300
that Democratic poll watchers counted coming through the precinct.
Provisional ballots are supposed to be sealed in an envelope
by the voter and dropped in the box.
At the courthouse, the
provisional ballots are set aside to await a hearing on their
validity.
The Sumter County Election Commission will hold a
provisional ballot hearing at 10 a.m. Friday at the Sumter County
Courthouse.
The hearing is usually held in the election
commission offices.
Baum said the provisional ballots will
count unless the challengers can present evidence or witnesses to
prove to the election commission that the votes shouldn't count.
The individuals whose votes are being challenged don't need
to be present at the hearing, but the challengers do need to be on
hand.
Contact Staff Writer Leslie Cantu at lesliec@theitem.com or
803-774-1250.
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November 5, 2004 
