South Carolina ready to make votes count

By STEVE SKARDON

Guest columnist  Opinion in The State   24 October 2004

 

Can you name the state and year in which alleged fraud, partisan recounts and controversial lawsuits clouded the election of a Republican president, who won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote?

Of course, you’d be right if you said Florida in 2000. You’d also be right if you said South Carolina in 1876.

It’s never been clear that Rutherford B. Hayes actually carried South Carolina that year. However, a special federal commission decided by a single vote that he probably did, and he went on to become the nation’s 19th chief executive. No one ever explained how South Carolina’s votes for president added up to 102 percent of its registered voters.

Potential legal challenges to next month’s presidential election are already cropping up in many states. So far, South Carolina is not among them for some very good reasons:

• South Carolina has invested heavily in modernizing its voting systems and training local officials in anticipation of this year’s election. President Bush did something after his election that Hayes did not do. He convinced Congress to pass legislation allowing sweeping changes in election procedures in each state.

The Help America Votes Act authorizes more than $3 billion to assist states in overhauling their election systems by 2006. Our state is getting $46 million to upgrade every aspect of our voter registration and elections infrastructure.

The cornerstone of the state’s plan is a statewide electronic voting system. South Carolina now has enough resources to replace every voting machine in the state with this new, state-of-the-art model. This change alone will reduce long lines, make voting less time-consuming, ensure more accurate returns and save counties millions of dollars in expenses over the next few years. You can review the state plan online at www.state.sc.us/scsec/.

This year 15 counties have moved forward to replace their less reliable punch card machines with the new electronic ones. The remaining counties will join them in 2006, when compliance with the act’s new standards becomes mandatory.

Many South Carolina counties have been using electronic voting machines for years, and there’s never been a ballot cast on them that could not be accounted for. Surely, there will be glitches as we move to this new system, but all kinds of protections, machine testing, poll worker training and voter education programs will minimize these risks. The manufacturer has even assigned one of its experts to each of the 15 counties to guide them through the election.

It’s important to remember that electronic voting systems in South Carolina have proven to be more accurate than those using paper. Don’t worry; these new machines are not vulnerable to hackers because they don’t rely on the Internet or computer networks. In the unlikely event a machine malfunctions, all the ballots will be safely preserved in three separate memory banks.

• South Carolina’s elections are increasingly overseen by politically independent professionals, not politicians with a stake in the outcomes. This is a critical element for any democracy, and too many states have yet to adopt it.

Our State Election Commission operates as an independent agency with an appointed board, whose members can’t be fired if they don’t please the politicians. Its career employees are professionals with years of public service.

In recent years, many of our county governments have wisely followed the state’s lead by removing partisans from their election processes and replacing them with independent board members and professional staff. The state’s association of county registration and election officials is one of the strongest in the country, and routinely insists on higher standards of professional performance and accountability.

There has also been an important statewide trend to increase the number of full-time staff in voter registration and elections offices. This is a positive step. As many as 250 elections are held in South Carolina each year.

• We have a good track record. South Carolina’s elections have been relatively problem-free in recent years. In fact, the state has frequently been recognized for its relatively smooth elections and innovative election practices.

Poll worker training is more comprehensive here than in most other states, and the high numbers of experienced poll managers at the same polling places each election creates continuity and enhanced voter confidence. Our voter registration system was one of the first to be fully integrated and statewide, while our appeals process has been very effective in resolving conflicts that might have ended up in court.

The election of 1876 notwithstanding, South Carolinians can have a reasonable expectation that the coming election will go smoothly. While more South Carolinians will vote than ever before, we can be confident that the state is fully capable of conducting an election in which every vote is counted, and counted accurately.

Mr. Skardon is the executive director of the nonprofit Palmetto Project. He and William D. “Rusty” DePass of Columbia are chairmen of the state’s HAVA Advisory Committee.