Long Voting Lines Should Help Early Voting Bill at SC Statehouse

The absentee voting line in Richland County Friday afternoon.

By: Robert Kittle | WSPA-TV
Published: October 31, 2008

The people standing in line for hours to vote absentee in South Carolina could end up shortening the lines for everyone in future elections. State Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, says he'll re-introduce a bill in January to allow early voting in South Carolina. He's been trying to get it passed for the last six years.

"Issues like this don't become important until people voice complaints about it," Rep. Neal says. "And I think, with the people we're seeing now around the state standing in line and trying to do absentee voting, is indication that something needs to happen."

South Carolina is one of only 16 states and the District of Columbia that requires voters to have an excuse for voting absentee. Thirty-three states, including North Carolina and Georgia, allow no-excuse absentee voting by mail and/or no-excuse in-person early voting. Oregon residents all vote by mail.

One of the reasons lines for absentee voting are so long in South Carolina is that it's done at each county's voter registration office. With early voting, there are multiple polling places, including shopping malls, libraries, schools and community centers.

Rep. Neal says, "I think that South Carolina has gotten to a point where we really need to do something proactively to make it easier for people to vote. We have, by some measure, the lowest voter turnout of any state, and I suspect that's because we have so many working people here who find it difficult to stand in line and wait hours to vote."

One of those is Robert Nichols, who was waiting to vote absentee Friday in Columbia because he has to work on Election Day. "I think early voting would be a lot better than what it is right now. I've been in line for approximately two-and-a-half hours right now. I propose another hour before we get inside and I have other things to do than stand in line," he said.

College student Tamara Simmons, who was waiting to vote for the first time in her life, also likes the idea of allowing early voting. She had already been waiting in line for 3 hours. "I did not expect this kind of line. I was not prepared to wait."

But she says it will be worth the wait. Even more so if the long lines lead to a new system that shortens the lines for everyone.