Richland ranks first in issuing photo IDs By ADAM BEAM abeam@thestate As director of the Darlington County Election Commission, Hoyt Campbell spends lots of time at church festivals, community meetings and the annual Sweet Potato Festival. But Campbell is not registering voters. He is helping get photo IDs for registered voters. Since 2012, Darlington County has given out more than 1,900 photo IDs to voters, accounting for almost 5 percent of that county’s registered voters. Richland County, which has more than five times the number of registered voters than Darlington, was the only county where more photo IDs were issued, giving out 2,269. Altogether, the State Election Commission says more than 13,000 photo IDs have been given out since December 2012, when the state’s controversial photo ID law went into effect. That is less than 1 percent of the state’s 2.9 million registered voters. South Carolina will have its first statewide election under the new law in November, when voters will choose a governor, two U.S. senators, six congressmen and 124 state House members. Opponents of the photo ID law said they feared it would be used to disenfranchise poor and minority voters. And, of the Top 5 counties that have given out the most photo IDs, four voted for Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012, before the voter ID law went into effect. Those counties have significant minority populations and sizeable numbers of nonwhite registered voters. “There is good and bad in those numbers. What it tells me, first and foremost, is that communities of color are committed to overcoming obstacles and barriers placed in their way of voting,” said state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, a member of the House budget subcommittee that oversees the Election Commission’s budget. “What it also suggests is that we’ve got more work to do.” Darlington County has had several “photo shoots” to reach out to voters who need IDs, Campbell said. The county has worked closely with churches, particularly in the African-American community. “We hit the streets... the churches and the barbershops and pretty much any place that people gather,” said Teresa Mack, a Hartsville city councilwoman who worked to get photo IDs to registered voters. “We try to make sure they are educated and know that that is available for them.” Howard Jackson, director of the Richland County Election Commission, said his agency has made similar outreach efforts and is planning even more leading up to November. “Everyone who is legally able to vote, we want them to vote in an election without anything standing in their way,” he said. Reach Beam at (803) 386-7038.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 02:00:01 +0000
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