S.C. Democrats ready for today’s primary

Two techies from Iowa — sitting in a small, dim room at the Wilbur Smith building downtown — are running the central nervous system of today’s primary.

The two Hawkeye Democrats run the computer system South Carolina Democrats will use to transmit ballot counts from precincts statewide to the central office.

That tallying system will stand in stark contrast to the old-fashioned paper ballots and hand-counting the party has chosen to use, instead of more expensive electronic voting machines.

Adapted from the system used in January for the Iowa caucuses, they have tested and retested the process. The system will help the party tally results and even make sure poll workers get to the precincts.

Today, it’s show time.

Party leaders say they’re ready. They have:

• 5,000 volunteers to operate the polls

• More than the $500,000 they needed to pay for the election

• Lawyers and accountants in every county

• Redundancies built into all their procedures in case one piece breaks down.

“We are tremendously excited about what is going on in South Carolina,” S.C. party chairman Joe Erwin said. “We think we are going to have a great primary.”

In the room next to the techies, dozens of volunteers spent Monday calling poll workers to remind them to work today. They will stay to help if anything goes wrong.

“It’s all for the good of the party,” volunteer Erica Rickel said.

— Jennifer Talhelm