FLORENCE, SC (WBTW) – Things didn’t go smoothly everywhere during Saturday’s GOP presidential primary.
Some voting machines failed Saturday morning at Johnsonville High School and voters actually had to cast their votes on notebook paper.
“I didn’t expect this this past weekend. It hit at 6:30 am like a brick wall,” said David Alford, Director of the Florence County Voter Registration and Election Commission.
A couple of precincts didn’t have any machines up and operational,” he stated.
He says the root of the problem in both Johnsonville and Olanta was a “man-made error.”
“What it amounts to is that the codes in the P.E.B’s didn’t match the codes in the machine. Regretfully Johnsonville had a pretty good turnout early and they ran through their first 50 ballots…and that’s what you go to when you don’t have a machine,” Alford explained.
While he says technicians resolved the issue by 11:00 that morning, preparation now shifts to the upcoming democratic primary weekend.
“We are in the process of resetting the same machines that went out this past Saturday. But we’ll work through it. If it happens this Saturday we’ll take the same measures to get it done,” he said.
Alford says all ballots were accounted for Saturday. However, he expects a smaller turnout this weekend for the democratic primary.
