Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009

Mistake leads to miscount at Myrtle Beach polls

A poll worker accidentally used the wrong hand-held vote counter to close a voting machine at the Dunes 1 voting precinct in Myrtle Beach on Tuesday, leaving about 260 votes uncounted, officials discovered Wednesday.

But it appears that, along with the 23 failsafe, challenged and late-arriving absentee ballots still to be certified today, it won't change the outcome of the election.

Horry County Voter Registration and Elections Director Sandy Martin said the hand-held counter will be placed back in its voting machine berth at 10 a.m. today, and the machine's totals will be printed out and certified along with the rest of the votes cast.

Incumbent Councilman Chuck Martino trailed challenger Mike Lowder by 301 votes Tuesday night, and mayoral challenger Mark McBride trailed Mayor John Rhodes by 492 votes.

City spokesman Mark Kruea said the mistake is a perfect example of why the election certification takes place two days after the election.

"It gives us time to find and check out oddities like this," he said.

After the polls closed Tuesday, people began questioning the unofficial vote totals from the Dunes precinct, which has 1,619 registered voters.

Martin, whose office handles the voting machines, reviewed the machine printouts from Tuesday night and confirmed that one machine's votes did not get counted.

The city's Election Commission meets at 10 a.m. today at Myrtle Beach's City Hall, 937 Broadway, to certify the votes. The meeting is open to the public.