Some may know, but I bet many do not, that there was an issue updating City of Newberry commissioner districts that were redrawn after the 2020 Census. As a result, approximately 500 ballots did not have the correct city commissioner race on them. That is nearly 1 out of every 11 ballots in the City of Newberry. It appears the issue was between a City-to-County handoff. The issue was discovered when one of the challengers for office realized, after casting his ballot on October 23, that part of it was incorrect.
On Friday, October 27, the County issued a press release, I assume because WLTX-TV from Columbia came to town asking questions for a story they aired later that day. In this press release, the County was “encouraging all City of Newberry voters to confirm the election they are supposed to vote.” Had the County issued a press release sooner after discovering the problem, it could have been covered by The Observer in time for more Newberry residents to actually see.
If you early-voted at the Election office, did you feel encouraged to confirm your ballot? When inquiring about this issue at the election office, I was handed a copy of the press release that had been folded up on a clerk’s desk. When I asked if this press release was posted on the County website, I was told it was. I cannot find a copy of this release anywhere on the Newberry County or City of Newberry websites. When there is a known issue with nearly 10% of the ballots, that “encouragement” should not be a press release few people saw, it should have papered the walls behind the voting stations and the county should have been checking every ballot they handed out until the issue was resolved. Maybe some of that happened. Maybe not.
Obviously there needs to be a process put in place between the City of Newberry and Newberry County to make sure something doesn’t happen like this 10 years from now. However, there are some questions that are relevant right now. Why did it take almost 5 days from finding the problem to issue a press release? Why wasn’t this press release prominently displayed in the election office and on official websites? The press release said that “As of today (October 27, 2023), Newberry County Voter Registration and Elections is in the process of addressing the redistricting for the City of Newberry”. It’s not clear from reading that whether that was continuing work, or if that work only started that day (again, the day that a Columbia TV station came knocking). If WLTX hadn’t asked, were they just going to let this issue slide right through the entire election? The press release said the issue would be resolved by close of business on October 30. Was it?
I hope The Observer can help us find answers.