‘We need everybody’s vote’: Big turnout expected at local polls
Local voting officials are expecting a sizable turnout at the polls today.
“I think I’m expecting a pretty good turnout. There seems to be a lot of interest in this election,” Orangeburg County Voter Registration and Election Director Aurora Smalls said.
The ballot for the Nov. 8 General Election features statewide races for governor, superintendent of education, commissioner of agriculture and others. It will also feature referendums in Bamberg, Calhoun and Orangeburg counties, as well as other local races.
Calhoun County Voter Registration and Election Director Shayla Jenkins said early voting can indicate how strong turnout will be on Election Day.
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“We were busy for early voting and a lot of times it’s indicative of how Election Day is going to be,” Jenkins said.
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“A lot of a lot of our citizens, of course, have already cast their ballot. So normally, it’s pretty indicative of early voting or what used to be in-person absentee. Those numbers are pretty indicative of what’s going to happen on Election Day. So I expect tomorrow to be fairly busy,” Jenkins said.
Smalls said the first day of early voting was heavy in Orangeburg County.
“It was heavier than normal during our previous years when we had in-person absentee. The first day usually was not that busy but our first day was pretty busy this year,” Smalls said.
Orangeburg County had a total of 8,987 early voters, or about 15 percent of the county’s registered voters.
In Calhoun County, 14% of voters voted early.
Jenkins says the numbers tell her a lot about this current election cycle and the candidates running.
“I think it tells you that we have some local candidates that are probably driving people to the polls and local races that are probably driving out a few more voters to come,” Jenkins said.
“I think that will continue into tomorrow and into the election results tomorrow night,” she said.
Smalls wants more voters go out and let their votes count.
“Voters need to go out and vote because without their vote, there will be no change. The change starts with them. They always say their vote doesn’t count. It will not count if they don’t come out and vote. We need everybody’s vote,” Smalls said.
For information, go to SCvotes.gov.
Many races are won on election night, but it’s not uncommon for it to take a few days – an in rare instances, a few weeks – for the Associated Press to declare a winner. That is because each of the 50 states determines its own voting rules, laws and procedures, including when polls close and when mail-in ballots are tallied, which means counting doesn’t happen all at once. The Founding Fathers set up the Electoral College — a series of state elections to pick the president — to empower states in terms of their own elections processes. But they didn’t stand up a centralized entity to count every citizen’s vote. So every U.S. election night, The Associated Press counts the nation’s votes, tallying millions of ballots and determining which candidates have won their races. It’s been done that way since 1848, when the AP declared the election of Zachary Taylor as president. In 2020, the Associated Press was 99.9% accurate in calling U.S. races, and 100% accurate in calling the presidential and congressional races for each state. In the 2020 race, President Joe Biden was declared the winner four days after Election Day – at 11:26 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 7. Stephen Ohlemacher, AP Election Decision Editor said he oversees and 60 analysts on election night, “and we declare the winners in about 7000 races across the U.S..” On election night, race callers in each state are equipped with detailed information from AP’s election research team, including demographics, the number of absentee ballots, and political issues that may affect the outcome of races they must call. For years, AP has employed a full-time elections research team that works year-round to ensure the vote count team, the decision desk and newsroom know as much as possible about what to expect once Election Day arrives. And can pass that on to member news organizations and customers. “In many years, it takes a long time in various states to find out who won different elections,” Ohlemacher said. “In the pandemic it did get more pronounced and that’s because the increase in mail ballots. It also became more pronounced in more states. Winners may have been called, and concessions may — or may not — have been made, but voting itself is over when polls close on Election Day. There’s still more work to do, as local election officials count and verify results through the canvass and certification process. That means that race calls are made before results are official. But the AP only declares a winner when it’s certain that the candidate who’s ahead in the count can’t be caught. “At the AP, we follow the numbers. We call races without fear or favor,” Ohlemacher said. “If the numbers say that a candidate has won and we can verify that the vote count is accurate, we declare a winner.”
Terry Benjamin II, a Claflin University mass communications senior, is reporting for The Times and Democrat as a Lee Enterprises-sponsored news-sports intern.
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