South Carolina State Polling Site Never Went Live (Updated)

Update: From William Wilson, Orangeburg County Branch President, NAACP. Apparently this problem was foreseen and the NAACP received assurances that these students would be able to vote.

“I presented to the Legislative Delegation my concern about people not getting their registration cards when we knew we registered them in a timely manner, including absentee ballots, etc. The other concern I presented to them was the situation at SC State and Calflin University. They had those students not voting on campus, which was Ward 4, although they confirmed that Ward 4 was on campus. With all those students that registered and changed their registration to Orangeberg County, they assured me the problem had been taken care of. Today we’re experiencing all kinds of problems, they’re not on the books, sending them to other polling places, and telling them to vote by provisional ballot.

We stopped the provisional ballot voting real early, but still they’re often not on the books and these kids are getting real frustrated. Now we’re trying to get these kids out of their dorms to come back and vote.

The issue is that the ones that get their registration cards, they put the school’s address on the cards, and not the PO box or dorm street address. On some they have the school’s address and they’re the ones having problems. According to the county’s Voter Registration Director, Howard Jackson, a batch of those registrations were sent to Columbia to be keyed into the system. If that is the case, the election commission in Columbia would not have a clue about the geographic location of the students, which may be the nucleus of the problem. The problem is what they have on the books for the students and what they have on the registration card is two different addresses.

We challenged it, and now they’re being sent to another precinct, or they’re being told to go to the Voter Registration office to vote. We’re trying to locate these students and transport them to the Voter Registration office. The issue is…some of them don’t even have their cards. All day long we’ve been transporting students down to the office to get their cards, once they had verified they were actually registered to vote.

I’m really proud of these kids for standing in long lines in the rain, etc, and being so determined to vote. But this is a letdown to them when they get up there to vote and are told they have to go somewhere else to vote. This is what the Legislative Delegation told me would not be a problem.”

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From the NAACP Youth and College Division:

From: Alethea Howard, NAACP Youth and College Division
404-428-8597

South Carolina State – polling site was never set up
Students being redirected to Howard E Middle School

- Enterprise Rental Car helping shuttle students back and forth

- Howard E Middle School is closer than first location they were redirected to, Whitaker Elementary, which is a 30 min drive away

From: Mr Akeem Brown, Political Action Chair for South Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division – ON LOCATION AT SC STATE
803-347-3160

"I'm here at SC State in the Fine Arts Center. Students were deterred because when they went to Smith Hammond Middleton Center (SHM), where they were told to go to vote on campus, they were told they have to go to Howard E Middle School or Whitaker Elementary School.

NAACP is working on shuttling students back and forth, preferably to Howard E Middle School or to the election office to cast provisional ballots. We're doing whatever we can to make sure they cast a regular ballot and not a provisional ballot.

Right now the NAACP Branch President is meeting with Howard Jackson, a local election official, to get the situation solved. We don't want anyone to get students to cast provisional ballots. Once people get to polling places they are finding that they ARE on the rolls.

They were told they could vote on campus at SMH. What's confusing is that the school across the yard, Claflin University, their students are able to vote at SMH. We're trying to figure out who gave the SC State students the information that their polling place was on campus."

These schools are located in Orangeburg, SC

Lawyer – William Wilson, branch president working with Lawyers Committee and EP Colaition
Sharon Daniels - documentarian