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Date Published: June 22, 2004
Candidates to settle scores
Democrats, Republicans have runoffs
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Bruz Crowson / The Item
Margie Ballard-Mack, left, poll manager for the
Birnie Hope Center voting location, gets last-minute
instructions Monday from Carol Ann Rogers of the Sumter
County Voter Registration/Election Commission at the
Sumter County Courthouse. Sumter, Lee and Clarendon
counties will have primary runoffs today. |
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By ADAM BEAM
Item Intern
AdamB@theitem.com
Voters in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties will have an
opportunity to cast ballots in today's Democratic or Republican
Primary runoffs.
All three counties have local Democratic
runoffs today, which could pull some voters away from the statewide
Republican runoff for U.S. Senate between former Gov. David Beasley
of Society Hill and U.S. Rep. Jim DeMint of Greenville.
Voters can vote in the Republican or Democratic runoff, but
not both. Also, if someone voted in one party's primary on June 8,
he or she can't vote in the other party's runoff today. However, if
someone didn't vote in the June 8 primaries, he or she can vote in
either the Democratic or the Republican runoff, but not both. Polls
will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Clarendon County voters
will vote in the Democratic runoff for probate judge between
incumbent Barney Lee Morris and Henry King Jr. Voters in the
precincts of Home Branch; Paxville; Manning 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5;
Jordan; Bloomville; Wilson; Foreston; and some voters in Alcolu and
Davis Station will vote for the county council District 2 race
between Margaret D. Jackson and Jerome McCray.
Lee County
voters in the precincts of Cypress, Stokes Bridge, Ashland, Turkey
Creek and some voters in St. Matthews and Bishopville 2 and 4 will
choose between Kathryn J. Stuckey and Jewell S. Tindall for school
board District 2.
Sumter voters have local elections on both
sides of the party line, with a countywide Republican runoff for
sheriff between Gary Metts and Robbie Baker, as well as a Democratic
primary for county council District 1 between Naomi Sanders and
Roland Robinson. Only voters in the Rembert, Horatio, Hillcrest,
Oakland Plantation 2, Delaine, Manchester Forest, St. Paul, Thomas
Sumter and 22 voters from the Green Swamp precincts can vote in that
election.
Election officials are wary of predicting voter
turnout for today's runoffs given the wishy-washy history of
voters.
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Bruz Crowson / The Item
Carolyn
Castleberry votes on an absentee ballot Monday at the Sumter
County Courthouse since she will be working in one of the
polling stations today. |
| If absentee ballots are any
indication, the turnout should be lower than the June 8 primary.
Sumter County has had 575 absentee ballot requests, but it had 1,508
for the June 8 primary. Clarendon County has had 783 absentee ballot
requests, but had 864 on June 8. Lee County has had 129 absentee
requests, and had 198 for the June 8 primary. Voters have until 7
p.m. today to return their absentee ballots. Voters cannot do
walk-in absentee voting today, however, but must vote at their
precinct.
For statewide elections, Sumter voters have been
inconsistent over the years. In the 2002 Republican primary for
governor, 4,906 people voted in the primary while 5,477 voted in the
runoff that Mark Sanford won. In the 1998 Democratic primary,
however, 2,964 people voted in the primary for state superintendent
of education, while only 900 people voted in the runoff won by Inez
Tenenbaum.
The 1998 Democratic primary in Lee County saw
3,598 people vote for state superintendent of education, while only
1,317 voted in the runoff won by Tenenbaum. But the 1998 Democratic
primary for county council District 3 saw 636 votes in the primary
but 735 in the runoff.
In heavily Democratic Clarendon
County, run-off elections have historically yielded a lower turnout.
In the 1998 Democratic primary, 3,533 people voted for state
superintendent of education, while 2,776 voted in the runoff. The
2000 race for county council chairman garnered 8,622 votes in the
primary and 6,891 in the runoff won by Dwight Stewart.
About
24 percent of registered Sumter voters participated in the
Democratic and Republican primaries in Sumter County on June 8.
Clarendon County had 34 percent and Lee County had 28 percent of
registered voters vote.
Election officials are scrambling to
pull these primaries off, combining six months of work into two
weeks. Counties started preparing for the June 8 primary in January,
but had to turn everything around in two weeks for the
runoffs.
"You've just got to redo everything," said Lynn
Hill, director of voter registration for Lee County. "We've had to
have ballots made, send absentee ballots out. We have two weeks to
do what took just six months before. It's hard to do it in two
weeks."
A lot of the work goes into absentee ballots. When
filling out an absentee application for the June 8 primary, voters
had the option of having another absentee ballot mailed to them in
the event of a runoff. Clarendon County had 500 of those ballots to
mail out after the primary was over.
Shirley Black, director
of voter registration for Clarendon County, said the state did that
to save time in the event of a runoff. This way, voters don't have
to come in and fill out another absentee application but can
automatically vote again for the same reason they voted absentee the
first time.
But with two weeks to send out hundreds of
ballots, election officials have to get creative in order to meet
the demand. One trick is using leftover ballots from the primary to
cut down on cost and time of printing new ones.
"We just
struck out the names and used the ones we had," Hill said. "Have to
have them available immediately for absentee. But when they go to
the polls Tuesday they will have new ballots."
In Sumter,
Voter Registration Director Pat Jefferson said her staff just took
the old ballots and stamped "runoff" on them to use for the absentee
mail outs.
She said after the staff certified the election
on June 10, they had to have the absentee ballots ready to go the
next day at 8:30 a.m.
"It hasn't been hectic, but very
busy," Jefferson said. "It was long hours, but we got it done. And I
commend my staff for it because they are doing a wonderful
job."
Contact Item Intern Adam Beam at AdamB@theitem.com or
803-774-1294.
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June 25, 2004 
