Voting Slow But Steady

Poll managers at several precincts around West Ashley told Patch.com they expect a moderate turnout in today's primary.

As many as a dozen people were waiting on the polls to open at some precincts, but turnout has not been overwhelming at any location. Turnout was on track to hit 17-20 percent according to poll managers and clerks at several precincts.

"The biggest problem right now is that Dorchester County took back the computers they had lent us for the last election so we only have the one computer for check-in," Ken Dilks said refering the to computers poll managers use to verify voters are registered when they show up. "It slows that process down a bit, normally we don't have a bottleneck there."

None of the other precincts visited by Patch.com in West Ashley were reporting any problems before noon.

Turnout at the St. Andrews Precincts 3 and 9 at the W. L. Stephens Aquatic Center on W. Oak Forest Drive is much lower than in the rest of the West Ashley area, with only 34 ballots cast, or 1.9 percent of elligible voters, as of 10:30 a.m., however both of those precincts are heavily Democratic, so a big turnout was not expected there.

Many voters that spoke with Patch.com told us their biggest concern this election cycle is beating Pres. Barack Obama. Most of them also told us that local political endorsements carry no weight when deciding which candidate to support.

"Those don't matter really, unless the person making the endorsement is someone I don't like, then I don't like the person they are endorsing," one voter told us.

The individuals we spoke with fairly evenly divided among the GOP candidates.

Check back with us throughout the day for updates from the polls.