Outdated maps cause voting troubles for Florence residents

FLORENCE — Some Florence residents didn’t vote in the municipal primaries after voter registration books showed erroneously that they don’t live within city limits.

Bill Travis said his home has been inside Florence at least since he moved there 2½ years ago. But on June 10, he got to vote only in the U.S. Senate primary and not the city election.

“I didn’t really pursue it because I’m not one to be too argumentative, (but) I was disappointed,” he said.

When he saw the one-vote difference separating incumbent Mayor Frank Willis and Stephen J. Wukela, he knew he had to tell someone about his experience, he said.

What happened was the voter registration book at Travis’ polling place on Pineneedles Road hadn’t been updated to reflect the city’s recent annexation of the street where the voter lives, acting Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Director Steve Love said.

That means Travis showed up as a “Code 99” — indicating a voter who lives outside the city — as did Jonathan Munn, who also lives within city limits.

Munn said he’s not the only person on his street who had the same problem as he did.

Even though the mayoral race was so close, Munn said it’s not the candidate a voter would have selected that’s important in this case.

“When you actually show up to vote and are not allowed to vote, it’s a shame,” he said.

The poll workers were polite, Munn said, and advised him to call the county’s voter registration office.

In such a situation, that’s exactly what voters and poll workers should do to determine whether the voter is eligible to vote in city elections, Love said.

Some Florence voters said confusion arose because city residents cast two ballots in the election. One ballot was for the city election and another was for federal, state and county contests. City voters could vote Republican in one primary and Democratic in the other, if they wished.

Joe Youmans, who directed the county elections commission from 1992 to 1999, was one of the voters who wanted to cast a Democratic city ballot although he’d voted Republican in the other contests.

He said, however, that he was never offered that opportunity and simply received two Republican ballots.

“I think there was a communication problem somewhere,” said Youmans, who added that he would have voted for Willis, the incumbent, who has protested the primary after falling one vote behind Wukela.

A voter who didn’t want to be identified said he’d intended to cast a ballot for Wukela but wasn’t allowed to vote in the Democratic city primary after casting a Republican ballot in the other primaries.

Love said his office hasn’t received any complaints that a poll worker wouldn’t allow a city resident to vote in one party’s federal, state and county primary and in the other party’s city primary.

He also said all poll managers and clerks were trained regarding the city ballot situation. Elections officials also asked the poll workers to show sample ballots so voters could more easily determine how they wanted to vote, he said.

“Voters automatically think that regardless of what party they’re affiliated with, they could vote for the (mayoral candidate) of their choice,” Love said.

Willis’ protest states some city residents weren’t allowed to vote in the municipal primary and that some voters weren’t allowed to cast a Democratic city ballot because they’d voted Republican in the other primaries, among other issues.

Wukela said complaining that the process was confusing “is rich” because the mayor and city council members voted to change the city’s election process.

The June 10 election was the first time city primaries have been held along with federal, state and county primaries.

“No one expects any election to be perfect,” Wukela said, adding that he thinks elections workers handled their responsibilities well.

“They did a yeoman’s job,” he said. “They worked hard, and they made a diligent effort” to ensure all city residents had an opportunity to vote.