Many of the delays apparently stemmed from a strong turnout, although mechanical glitches, confusion and other problems also added to the wait.

Election officials predicted that turnout would exceed the amount from 2000, perhaps by a substantial margin. In Charleston County, turnout appeared to have easily exceeded 60 percent.

While many polling places reported few or no problems, confusion reigned at others. Some city of Charleston voters apparently were able to vote in the race for the James Island Public Service District, and voters in other areas reported that they were being forced to vote in the wrong races.

Some reported having to wait as long as four hours to vote in Mount Pleasant, although most waits seemed to be shorter than that. The waits led to frustration at some polling places, and the unusually warm weather added to the discomfort.

Voters at the Oakdale Retirement Center in Mount Pleasant weathered oppressive heat and up to 2-1/2-hour waits in huge lines that snaked up and down hallways. Emergency crews arrived around 1 p.m. to assist an elderly man who fainted while waiting in line to vote. He appeared to be alert as crews wheeled him out on a gurney.

One woman, heading down the stairs after finally casting her ballot, let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Jesus!" she said.

At 7 a.m., Jimmy Trenor thought he'd drop in to the Ashborough West precinct in the Oakbrook community near Summerville to cast his vote before going to classes. The line stretched out the door of the Old Fort Baptist Church mission center and wound back and forth along the walkway by the worship center. He returned after class and the line was just as long. The wait was more than half an hour.

Nobody in line at the quiet suburban precinct could recall waiting more than a few minutes before, even for presidential elections. Trenor took his place at the back, wearing a Charleston Southern University shirt, sunglasses propped on the ball cap.

"I thought there was some kind of rock concert going on," he kidded.

Not everyone encountered a wait. Many said voting was a pleasure.

Kristen Gonsior, voting at the Folly Beach library, said she was so involved in the election that she had been nagging her parents to vote.

"I'm the baby of the family, and I'm trying to get everybody riled up," she said.

Voters in James Island precincts 7 and 10 met confusion at the polls. Lines were not marked, and many voters waited in the wrong lines only to have longer waits in the right ones.

Lines were not the only problems on James Island.

City residents were allowed to vote for James Island PSD candidates, apparently because the machines were not programmed to lock out voters who did not live in the PSD.

In West Ashley, a similar situation took place with the St. Andrews Public Service District.

James Washington, clerk of St. Andrews Precinct 24, said the only candidates that may have collected illegitimate votes were running without opposition. Washington's poll switched to paper ballots for about an hour, until the problem was corrected.

Similar problems took place during June's primary election. In the Democratic primary for a Charleston County Council race, some District 4 residents were prevented from voting in the race because of a voting machine problem.

Ultimately, the District 4 results were thrown out, and a new primary will be held Nov. 30.

Dan Martin, chairman of the Charleston County Board of Elections and Voter Registration, said that the machines in the West Ashley and James Island precincts were not programmed correctly. The mistake was caught after about an hour, he said. Martin said he did not know how many votes were cast before that happened.

In some districts, voters complained of campaign workers violating state law by handing out literature too close to the polling place.

For most voters, however, waits were the primary issue.

In Mount Pleasant's No. 6 precinct, the 1,100 registered voters had only two voting machines available to them. Some waited more than two hours to cast ballots at Moultrie Middle School.

"We usually have a minimum of three machines," said poll manager Lou Mintz. "I told them we would need four to five machines for this election. We got two."

Some problems stemmed from bad information. In Dorchester County, some 900 voters received registration cards with a wrong address for their precinct.

Poll workers reported a number of voters showing up at the wrong place. Election officials blamed the mistake on a printing error in Columbia.

Beyond the Lowcountry, U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who was re-elected, was upset about what he saw at Benedict College.

"I'm not a happy camper tonight," Clyburn said. "At Benedict College, I saw Republican Gestapo tactics like nothing ever seen before."

Clyburn claimed that students were not allowed to vote using their Benedict student IDs but University of South Carolina students were allowed to use theirs because they are state-issued IDs.

"You can't get a better ID than that," Clyburn said. "What better way to vote than with an ID that has your name and picture on it?"

Statewide, some counties using new electronic voting machines reported scattered problems. Some voters in precincts in Greenville and Georgetown counties had to use paper ballots after problems cropped up with the machines.

Phillip Caston, Adam Ferrell, Jason Hardin, Matt Mogul, Dave Munday, Jim Parker, Bo Petersen, Mindy Spar and Kyle Stock of The Post and Courier Staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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