SC Election Commission preps for Election Day, discusses transparency and integrity

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) —

Early voting is underway and Election Day is less than two weeks away.

Preparations for election centers continue as South Carolina moves towards the big day.

“A lot of it has been from the county level, recruiting polling managers and making sure they’ve got enough early voting centers established and staffed and then enough polling managers to staff the polling day locations. So a lot of it is finding polling places, finding early voting centers that work for the county and making sure they have enough people to adequately staff them,” says Voter Education and Outreach Coordinator for the South Carolina Election Commission, John Michael Catalano.

According to Catalano, another focus for the SC Election Commission leading up to Election Day,  is speaking to voters about where they can vote, and reminding them to bring one form of identification with them i.e. their license, DMV identification card, or passport.

He also says that many people have had questions about election security over the past couple of years.

“A lot of the questions that come to us —  we welcome — because transparency is very important in elections. You want to make sure that people aren’t getting elected in the dark, right? You want to make sure that people that are going to service the government are actually chosen by the voters. Which is why we have a heavy network of security partners and federal agencies. DHS, state partners, SLED, local law enforcement. It’s a whole community in SC to make sure elections are fair and accurate,” says Catalano.

The SC Election Commission has a document covering election integrity on it’s website at www.scvotes.gov with details on hand count audits and other checks and balances.

“We understand, hey, voters need to understand the results are true and accurate, but that we also recognize that it’s important that they believe that,” says Catalano.