A major development this afternoon among Democrats just one day before their primary.

South Carolina party chairman Joe Erwin decided to drop the controversial pledge that voters were going to be required to sign before casting a ballot in tomorrow's presidential primary.

He told NewsChannel 7's capital reporter Robert Kittle, "We heard from voters across the State of South Carolina who said, 'Hey, this oath is confusing.'"

The oath, located at the top of the poll list that voters sign at their precinct, said, "I do solemnly swear or affirm that I am a registered voter in this precinct. I consider myself a Democrat and have not participated in the 2004 presidential nominating process of any other political party."

Erwin says independents and Republicans were complaining.

"There were some Republicans saying, 'I wanted to vote in this primary but I don't consider myself a Democrat and that's part of the wording,'" Erwin said.

Democrats say the pledge has been a part of their elections here since 1976 and was an effort to keep people from voting in more than one primary on the same day.

But this year it's not on the same day. The Republicans will not hold their primary, which features a hotly contested US Senate race, until June.

The South Carolina Election Commission says people will be allowed to vote tomorrow and then turn around and vote in June's GOP primary.

"A Republican who's a loyal Bush supporter who just wants to try and vote for the candidate they think Bush can beat, we can't stop them from doing that," said Erwin. "But I hope personal integrity stops them from doing that. That's wrong."

He says all 1,956 precincts in South Carolina will be open tomorrow and Spartanburg County GOP chairman Rick Beltram is going to try to make sure of it. Beltram is sending 10-15 volunteers to polling places in his area.

"If certain polls are not open, particularly in the bigger polling locations that I'm particularly interested in, does the vote when it's all said and done mean anything?" Beltram asked.

Republicans also say they're launching this effort because they don't want to be blamed for anything going wrong.

"You never know. It always happens," said Josh Marthers, who's going to be one of the GOP's monitors. "If something were to be mess up they're just all of a sudden can come up and blame the other side. And we're just going to make sure nothing comes up to where that can happen."

Beltram admits it's also a bit of retribution for Democrats suing the GOP in 2000 when it didn't open all of the polling places for its presidential primary that featured then-Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain.

Greenville County GOP chairman Ed Foulke says he's "not too concerned" about what happens in the Democratic primary and he's staying out of it.

Both Beltram and Foulke say they're asking Republican voters to stay away from the polls tomorrow.