Pee Dee voters turn out despite rain, snow

Wet conditions might have stopped some Pee Dee residents from venturing out to the voting polls Saturday, but it didn’t stop all of them.

Rain or no, Florence resident Bill Bessenger said the weather had little to do with his exercising his right to vote.

“I feel like somebody that doesn’t take the time to vote doesn’t have time to complain,” Bessenger said. “So if I want to complain or give praise to whatever is going on in Washington, I need to get out and vote.”

Despite the abundance of Republican candidates, Bessenger said John McCain earned his vote.

“With the numbers the way they are, he’s the one to go all the way,” he said.

Florence resident Christina Showalter said she isn’t telling which candidate she voted for, but she does think casting a vote is important.

“I’d like to think my vote counts for something,” Showalter said.

“I’m glad she thinks like that, she’s a smart woman,” Showalter’s son Bobby said.

Allen Anderson, an election official for Florence Ward 4, which had its polling place at Poynor Adult Education Center, said only 48 people had voted during the first six hours after the polls opened, while Florence Ward 2, which also was at Poynor, reported just four votes.

“This is slow for a primary, and I believe it’s due to the bad weather,” Anderson said. “Because older people are not coming out in the rain and the cold weather — they’ll stay in.”

But older voters came out in droves, according to Diane Brown, an election official at Lamb’s Chapel on Southborough Road.

“I’m seeing more older Americans coming to vote than younger Americans,” she said.

Three precincts voted at Lamb’s Chapel, including Ebenezer 1, which is one of the largest in Florence County, Brown said.

At 3 p.m., about 1,036 voters out of the 6,000 registered voters in all three precincts had cast votes, Brown said.

“We’ve had a steady flow all day. I hope that people will get past the weather and go ahead and vote,” Brown said. “What a privilege, to live in a country where we can vote. So if rain is all we have to bother with — get over it.”

Florence County’s tallies were delayed because voting machines didn’t automatically close themselves out at 7 p.m., when the polls closed, county Voter Registration and Elections Director Mike Young said.

The programming from the state possibly contained elements that the machines didn’t understand, Young said, although the county elections commission will have to investigate what caused the problem.

Closing the machines required an override that involves two passwords, Young said.

So rather than having to walk poll workers through the process, elections employees performed the override at Election Central, in the former Florence County Library.

Primary results for the county’s precincts began flowing in about 8:40 p.m.

Unlike Florence County residents, Darlington residents came out amid snowfall to vote, said Dallas Stewart, a poll worker at High Hill precinct.

“The turnout was much better than expected, especially with the weather,” Stewart said. As of 5 p.m., about 200 voters had cast ballots, Stewart said.

Some voting precincts in Marion experienced slow turnouts, while others were average, according to Peggy Israel, a clerk at the Marion II precinct at the Marion Opera House. More than 600 voters cast their ballots in the city before the polls closed.

“We normally have a 10 percent turnout, but today was around 5 percent, so I would think the weather would’ve had some effect,” Ed Mason, a clerk at the Northwest Mullins precinct, said.

Mason and Florence Ward 2 clerk Tonya Small both said they expect a larger showing next week for the Democratic Primary.

“This is a predominately black polling place, so next week we’ll have a very large turnout,” Small said.

Anderson said he’s not sure what to expect next Saturday.

“I understand that it’ll be a little bit warmer next week, but they’re still calling for rain. So I don’t know what next week will bring.”

— Marion Star & Mullins Enterprise staff writer Naeem McFadden, Morning News metro editor Jackie Torok and Morning News staff writer Charles Tomlinson contributed to this report.