Love handled the unexpected with Florence mayoral primary

Steve Love never thought he’d run an election, but he recently found himself in just that unexpected scenario with 30 days before the June 10 primaries.

Love, who became Florence County’s acting elections commission director in May and interim director in July, previously served as the county’s voting equipment technician.

His first time working in elections was in the early 1970s, decades before voting machines came to the Pee Dee. At that time, he volunteered to help hand-count paper ballots in Kinston, N.C., where he worked for DuPont, he said.

“It was a very slow process,” Love said. “I can remember it taking like 12 hours after the polls closed before you had an idea of who was really going to come down and win.”

About five years after retiring from DuPont in 1999, the Florence native became involved in elections again, eventually agreeing to maintain the county’s voting machines.

His interest in elections comes from his father, the late M.L. Love Sr., who always was involved in campaigns back to the time Strom Thurmond ran for president in 1948.

“I registered to vote when I was 18 years old and have not missed voting since then,” Love said.

He said he researches all the candidates and votes for who he thinks is the best person for the office.

“A lot of people just go to vote against somebody rather than for somebody,” Love said.

The Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Commission chose Love as temporary director after the commission suspended and later removed director Mike Young.

Despite the short time in which to prepare for the primary, Love said he had an idea of what to expect through working with Young.

The primary, however, was anything but ordinary in the city of Florence, where challenger Stephen J. Wukela led incumbent Frank Willis by one vote. Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court denied Willis’ appeal of the election. A previous protest to a S.C. Democratic Party board also was denied.

“Really, I was proud that the Democratic Party and the courts upheld our certification (of the primary results),” Love said. “Not that I was against anybody, but I think we did everything to the best of our ability.”

Willis’ attorneys said some city residents weren’t allowed to vote while several out-of-city residents cast ballots in the mayoral election.

Love said that with 375 to 400 people working at polling places, “there are human errors made.”

“But I think they are very minimal,” he said, and are “magnified” when the vote is so close.

To help avoid any questions of eligibility in the November general election, Love said he encourages people who have moved or had property annexed into a municipality to update their voter registration by Oct. 4.

Love said he’s not actively seeking the full-time elections director’s job, although he has committed to stay through the November general election and the end of the year. At that time, he’ll speak with the commission about what he’d like to do, he said.

Since becoming acting and interim director, Love has trained senior equipment manager Stephen Grantham, who handles Love’s former responsibilities and then some.

Love is training Grantham in all aspects of elections “in the event something happens,” he said.

It’s the same way he trained employees as a supervisor for 33 years at DuPont, he said.

“It’s not good for one person to know everything and no one else (to) know anything,” he said.