Richland County still has problems at the polls

In 2012, Richland County was the home of the worst voting fiasco in memory. Long waits, confusion and a total lack of integrity in the final counts. The State newspaper, the Thursday (June 12 headline) is trumpeting the announcement that there were not major problems at Richland County polls in Tuesday's primary. But there were still problems. Poll workers were not familiar with equipment and that slowed down the voting process. The leaders are also soliciting for young poll workers who are "computer savvy" according to The State. Will adding staff, and increasing the budget, help the competency rate in the county? That has not worked in other government agencies, but it seems to be the answer a lot, despite the rate of failure. The State does note that fewer than 25 percent of registered voters, voted in the largely Democrat County. The SC Election Commission reported Richland County statewide participation at less than 16 percent. The fear from officials in Richland County is that if there is heavy turn-out, there will be more chaos and a possible corrupt result, again. Many of the Democrat leaders in Richland County may not mind. Richland County, in the 2012 debacle, passed a large penny-tax, that will result in $1 billion for county government to spend, in Richland County. After the 2012 catastrophe, many of those responsible have been retained, though the deck chairs may have been shuffled. It's almost two years since the last disaster, and Richland County is still lost, looking to young poll workers to save the highly paid "experts" who engineered the last mess. Any government should study Richland County, to see how "not to" run county government.