Election Director: Primary Running Smoothly

Elections and Registrations Director Rodney Allen says today’s primary is running smoothly so far – he just wishes more voters were taking part.

“The biggest thing people need to remember is that there is a primary today,” Allen said.  

Unlike other areas, such as Oconee County, which canceled its Republican primary in the wake of the most recent State Supreme Court decision, Pickens County’s primary is taking place as scheduled.

“The only thing different this year is we have people who collecting signatures to run as petition candidates, which they are perfectly allowed to do, as long as they adhere to a couple of guidelines,” Allen said.

He said petitions candidates have been adhering to the guideline.

He said turnout has been slow so far today, but he’ d have a better idea of turnout county-wide later in the day, after he spoke with poll managers.

Pickens County was nearly unaffected by the most recent State Supreme Court decision, Allen said.

He said only 1 candidate had been affected, a candidate for District 2 of the State House, whose district included a small portion of the Stone Church Precinct.

Poll workers have signs listing the change in that district, Allen said.

So far, Allen and his staff have received a small number of calls concerning today’s primary, he said.  

“People wake up and they want to go vote,” Allen said. “I’ve had some calls from people wanting to change their party. I tell them you’re not registered by party to begin with. All you have to do is walk out the door and vote.” 

While voter turnout is typically low for primaries, Pickens County has bucked that trend in the past, Allen said.

“In the presidential preference primary, we had the most turnout of all the counties in the state – we had 30 percent turnout,” Allen said.

He said the countywide race for Sheriff and the Congressional race in the Democratic primary are attracting voters today.

“We have two extremely strong primaries going on right now,” Allen said.  “It’s been going extremely well so far. The weather’s been cooperating with us. Hopefully the weather will hold out, so people have the opportunity to get out and exercise their constitutional right to vote.