Here’s what the Horry elections office needs to make 2020 elections run smoothly
With the 2020 election coming up next year, the Voter Registration and Elections Office is seeking more funding to help avoid the long lines and late certifications of the past.
Horry County Elections Director Sandy Martin presented this week to the County Council Admin Committee requesting additional space and staff members that would help her office staff polling places, store election materials and count votes faster.
To help the polls operate smoothly on election day, Martin recommends increasing the benefits for people who help run the polls on election day. At a previous Board of Elections meeting, Martin said while many volunteers are great, they are not held as accountable as full-time staff or sometimes people do not show up to help.
Being a poll worker requires a lot more than just showing up on election day. Volunteers have to go through training. Typically there are about 800 volunteers, paid $25 for their time.
The elections office is asking for an additional $25 to pay poll volunteers $50 for their time.
Based off what she is hearing from the state, Martin said the new voting system will probably need more space than the Elections Office currently has in its Conway location. Martin said the new system might be a return to paper ballots, which would require more storage for a long period of time.
In addition, with absentee ballots becoming more common, it is a challenge to store the ballots, mail them out and make sure they’re properly counted in such a small office space. One of her requests was for more room, even if it is only temporary for the election. This could help with the speed of counting votes and staying organized in the stressful hours following the election.
“You’re talking a massive amount of paper,” Martin said. While space to hold all these ballots is important, Martin said she ultimately needs more salaried staff members to help facilitate voter registration, the election day itself and vote counting.
Martin said her staff of four people is significantly smaller compared to the staff in Charleston, with 15 full-time staff, or Greenville, with eight full-time employees. While Horry County’s electorate has rapidly grown, the voting office’s staff has stayed relatively the same size, making it hard to keep up with the increased demand for registration and absentee voting.
She asked for three additional staff members: an absentee ballots clerk, election programmer and administrative assistant. In total, the new positions will cost over $120,000 annually with salaries and benefits.
All of these requests require political and financial support from County Council. Martin said even if her office doesn’t get any funding, her staff will continue on as it has.
“We’ll have to use what we got,” she said. “And do the best we can, which is exactly what we’ve been doing”
In April, County Council and senior staff members will travel to the Spring Budget Retreat to discuss spending priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. Martin’s requests will be among those discussed.
