The State, daily newspaper for Columbia, South Carolina, explains here that South Carolina has many election laws which are not enforced. For example, state law says precincts cannot have more than 1,500 registered voters, but two-thirds of the precincts in Richland County did have more than 1,500 registered voters. One precinct had 4,029 registered voters.
How many small armies of poll workers and voting machines in the 4029 precinct ???
Reminder – having elections is one of the very few things that the States MUST DO – to give the appearance of being *democratic* (small d).
Is SC still in a state of denial/rebellion from 1860-1861 — regardless of Gen. Sherman showing up with the Union Army in 1864-1865 in SC ???
Is that because of growth since the census and reprecincting, or were they initially drawn oversize?
I work in an Iowa election office and was deeply involved in reprecincting the last two cycles. Iowa law specifies a maximum census population, all ages, of 3500. A mid-decade redraw is only allowed if there has been a special census. One city considered that circa 2007 but decided against; in 2011 they went from two precincts to SIX.
In 2011 reprecincting we managed to shrink the biggest precincts yet keep the same number of precincts county-wide (57) by consolidating some of the smallest rural precincts.
Here are final stats from the 2002-2011 set of precincts
http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/vrstats/Final%20vrstats%202011-12-16/st-rankt.htm
These are current stats from the 2012-2021 precincts
http://www.johnson-county.com/auditor/vrstats/st-rankt.htm
Note that the largest precinct is smaller, despite the larger grand total county registration, and the smallest precinct is larger.
Also note: Iowa is a heavy early voting state; roughly a third statewide this past November. In our county, 58% of the vote was cast early. You can draw your precincts big if more than half your vote is cast before Election Day.
We have some unusual complications as a college town. Two precincts are dominated by dorms and three more by student apartments, which means highly variable turnout. We also have one large housing complex dominated by married foreign student housing. Almost no eligible voters… but a lot of census population. We factored that stuff in as best we could.
@ 2 If you read the article your questions will largely be answered. The inconsistent and enlarged size of the precincts is the result of a lack of enforcement. The law requiring precincts of no more than 1,500 voters was passed in the 1970s and has never been enforced.
SC does not have a centralized elections system. It has 47 county election commission and a state commission that seemingly voluntarily advises the county entities. There is no clear responsibility for oversight in the management of elections.
The reason election law is being discussed? Richland County’s Election Commission thoroughly botched the 2012 vote. Many people would like to see the county election commissioner fired, yet a legal opinion of the state attorney general was required to determine if this was possible and if so, who could fire her.