Record Absentee Voters Shut Down State System

A flood of absentee voting in the Palmetto State temporarily stalled voting across the state on Tuesday morning.

The system was down for about 10 minutes as the state reset absentee voting machines to allow for a greater capacity of voters, according to Dorchester County Board of Elections and Voter Registration Director Joshua Dickard. 

"There was a threshold of how many voters a county could have," Dickard said. He added that Charleston County's increased absentee voting numbers seemed to be the root of the reboot for all counties.  

In Dorchester County, polling workers and voters saw a 10-minutes delay due to Tuesday's reboot. With nearly 700 absentee, in-person voters in Dorchester County in one day and with wait times as long as 10 minutes, the reboot didn't go unnoticed. 

But poll workers were able to take absentee ballots manually until they reset, Dickard said.

Who are you voting for? Check out Summerville election headquarters here.

So far, more than 8,000 in-person and mail-in absentee ballots have been received in Dorchester County. To put that in perspective, that is nearly 15 percent of the ballots cast in the general election in 2008. About 7,000 voted absentee in 2008 in Dorchester County.

The most common reasons cited for casting an absentee ballot have been being over 65 years old and being out of town for employment or vacation, Dickard said. In South Carolina, voters must give a reason for casting an absentee ballot. Click here to see acceptable reasons for absentee voting.

Dickard said Dorchester County's high numbers are likely due to opening a second in-person absentee voting location in the county's most populated area: Summerville. The only location open in 2008 was in the county's seat of St. George, he said.

Dickard said he estimated the total number of to be less than 3,500 for in-person absentee voting in 2008. More than 4,000 in-person absentee ballots have been cast in Dorchester County since absentee ballot voting began Oct. 22 in Summerville.

Absentee ballots remain a secret until Nov. 6 when they are counted with the rest of the ballots, and there is no way to tell if more Republicans or more Democrats are hitting the polls, Dickard said.

Edited 10 a.m. Oct. 31 to add total number of absentee voters in Dorchester County in 2008.