Ward 25: “Chaos”, Say Voters

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “Chaos,” says Warner Wells, Poll Worker at Ward 25. “It’s about 3 hours and 5 minutes from right here and we are about 20 minutes from voting,” says Earle McElveen, Voter. Election day brought on a headache for voters in Ward 25 at Kilbourne Park Baptist Church. “This is the second time I’ve been here, I waited almost 2 hours this morning and now I’m back and they’re telling me it’s going to be 3 hours from here,” says Nancy Griffith, Voter. The problem? ABC Columbia News learned there weren’t enough voting machines to handle the crowd. “They sent 3 machines out here, at 7:15 one of the machines broke down.” says Wells. Voters tell ABC Columbia News they were perturbed, to say the least. “It’s frustrating, it’s very frustrating, my back hurts from standing here so long,” says McElveen. Then nearly 6 hours after the machine went down, our cameras were rolling when a new machine was brought in and they were rolling when voters, still waiting, found out. However, for some in the same building, the day wasn’t so bad. “I got here about 5 minutes ago,” says Bob Bohl. Crandall Sims reporting, “To give you an idea of what’s going on here to my left is Ward 25, to my right is Ward 24. In Ward 24 there are a little more than 900 registered voters, three machines and hardly any wait. In Ward 25, there are more than 1500 registered voters, now 4 machines and a near 3 hour wait time.” But for Yevette Shaver who waited for hours with her 5 1/2 week old baby boy, help came from other voters. “Someone said go ahead girl, you’ve been here too long with him,” says Shaver. She went straight to the front of the line. Yet, even with the frustrations, complaints and fatigue that voters say set in from waiting today, they told us they were staying until their ballot was cast. “Absolutley, I’m all in,” says McElveen. According to South Carolina Election Commission spokesperson Chris Whitmire, as long as a voter is in line by 7:00 p.m., they will be allowed to vote. Whitmire tells ABC Columbia News a marker will be placed behind the last voter in line at 7:00 p.m. and that there is no limit on how long the polls will stay open to get the voters in.