Record voter turnout could occur this year

While the presidential race still is more than a month away, officials are gearing up for the potential of a record turnout.

"We're anticipating the biggest (turnout) we've ever had," said Suzanne Turner, executive director of the Cherokee County Election Commission.

To accommodate the expected rush of voters, Turner said the commission will be sending every electronic voting machine it has to the polls. The exact distribution of machines will depend on the number of registered voters in each of the county's precincts. The county has 146 voting machines altogether.

"Some precincts may have two (machines), some may have seven or eight," Turner said.

Since the beginning of the year, the Cherokee County Voter Registration Office has seen a marked increase in the number of people registering to vote this year. The voter registration rolls have climbed from 25,398 in January to 27,019 as of last Thursday, said Barbara Shackleford, the county's voter registration director. That's an increase of 1,621 voters so far.

Oct. 4 is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election.

While new registrations have been keeping the office busy, Shackleford said the county still is below the number of registered voters for the 2004 presidential election, when there were 28,310 on the rolls. The numbers change frequently due to people moving, deaths, and occasional voter registration mailings to inactive voters.

With the election right around the corner, the American Civil Liberties Union released a survey last week that caused it to worry some voters could be left out in the cold on election day. Using college students to poll election officials in each of the state's 46 counties during the summer about the rights of convicted felons, and those convicted of federal or misdemeanor crimes, to vote, the ACLU claimed election officials were wrong as much as 48 percent of the time when asked about the latter situations.

Shackleford said she had no idea who the ACLU or its pollsters had talked to, since neither person in the local two-person voter registration office recalled being asked any questions this year about the voting rights of those with federal or outof state convictions, questions the ACLU claimed Cherokee County, and many others, allegedly got wrong when surveyed.

Regardless, an ACLU official said the issue remains valid.

"A lot of the people we're talking about in this survey legally have the right to vote," said Rachel Bloom, advocacy coordinator for the ACLU. "They are eligible and people are telling them they're not."

In South Carolina, the ACLU said individuals convicted of felonies in state or federal court, or of misdemeanors involving violations of election law, may not vote until they fully complete their sentences.

But the right to vote is restored upon completion of sentence and probation, the ACLU says. And those convicted of any other misdemeanors only lose the right to vote while incarcerated.

Voters who completed a sentence for a felony or federal conviction have to call or contact their voter registration office to have their rights restored. If that happens, Shackleford said her office confirms the sentence has been completed and informs the state Election Commission.