Policies, Procedures ‘Stronger’ Says Election Official

RICHLAND COUNTY, S.C. (WOLO) – In the wake of the Richland County Election Commission apologizing again, officials say they have identified the problem and assure voters it will not happen again.

Director Howard Jackson says in addition to handling a ‘systematic issue’ that left more than 1,000 absentee votes uncounted in the November 5th election, he is also implementing a mandatory pre-certification audit process.  This, he claims, will allow for votes to be counted prior to being certified.  Jackson says three of four Personal Electronic Ballots, PEBs, were read; one was not.  That one resulted in 1,100 absentee votes not being certified.  He says stronger policies and procedures now in place will prevent further errors.

You may recall similar problems in Richland County during the 2012 November General Election. Voters became exhausted and frustrated after waiting in lines up to five-hours long. Once the election was over, officials also discovered hundreds of ballots had not been counted.

Both county and state republicans and democrats say they have heard promises of no more errors before and are not convinced voters will not find themselves in a similar position, come Decemeber 3rd.  They do, however, say they hope for the best.

More than 71,000 registered voters will have the opportunity to vote in a special election on whether to change the City of Columbia’s forms of government.