Tales From an AP Election Night Stringer
How did you spend your election night? For me, instead of watching the election results trickle in from my couch, I was at the Darlington County Voter Registration office in Darlington as an AP Election Stringer. (much thanks to Doug Fisher for forwarding me the e-mail from AP looking for help, and to the Neil Hopwood from the News & Press who doesn’t ever want that gig any more; he has a baby now, and I have teenagers- so this was a night out for Mom, the novice-citizen-journalist-wanna-be.)
What exactly does an AP Election Stringer do? First off, I participated in a rehearsal on Saturday. Between the hours of 3:00 – 5:00 pm, I called a toll free number and read mock results for our county, being careful to “speak clearly, use digits rather than three thousand, four hundred and fifty-six”. Easy as pie, and done in about 15 minutes. Then last night, I drove to Darlington and tried to find the building which would be easy if the STREET SIGN FOR RUSSELL STREET was actually visible. But, thanks to a call from a fellow political fan, I got there okay. I was there 15 minutes before the polls closed, right on time.
I walked in to find the “press room”, a large room with a dvd projector hooked up to a laptop facing a blank wall, a few tables, chairs, and lots of local celebrities. Hoyt Campbell, the Voter Guru of Darlington County, manned the office with aplomb. Wesley Blackwell of Hartsville running unopposed for Darlington County Council was there “just for fun”. Anne Warr, seeking re-election for Darlington County Council was there with her daughter and granddaughter, looking lovely as ever. Billy Burch from Wesley UMC was there and was so helpful to me explaining how the evening would go, as he’s helped on countless elections! My favorite columnist from the Florence Morning News, Dwight Dana, joined the crowd. Pennie Nicholson of County Council, running unopposed, joined Joyce Thomas running for School Board. Later in the evening, one of my favorite ladies, Adelena Graham walked in… she has personally registered more people to vote in Darlington County than any other person! Will Isgett, reporter from the Hartsville Messenger, was my guardian angel helping me through my first election night jitters… I owe him a lunch now. Michael from the Spratt Campaign was there; as I am a “citizen journalist” rather than a Journalist, I never remember anyone’s last name unless I’ve read it, so for this post he will be "Tall Michael". (sorry, Michael!) The only man with a camera was Mike Essian from NewsChannel 15. I had brought along a few pads of paper, a book (in case it got slow- ah, my naivete`) a calculator, my daughter’s cell phone, my AP Stringer ballot pages with columns for 5 calls and final call entries, pencils, pens, my glasses, and … gum. I called in to AP to confirm my reporting unit number and cell phone number, and claimed a corner of a table.
Lots of folks were milling about, a fella sat down near the dvd projector- I should have found out his name, too; I’ll call him “Mr. Booming Voice", was joined by a woman and moved over to the laptop. I figured this would be a loooooong night. All at once, in walk some big men in similar outfits bringing in folded up voting machines from the first precinct, Darlington 1. They rolled them and stacked them along the wall, and a representative brought the tallies to Hoyt Campbell to enter in. A paper was brought back to the news room where the votes were called out by Mr. Booming Voice, and entered into the screen by the woman at the laptop.
The screen only projected the results for Governor (Sanford, Moore), U.S. House District 5 (Norman, Spratt), State House District 56 (Lee, Neilson) and State House District 62 (James, Williams), local elections for County Council and School Board… lacking the over 7 other elections I needed to call into AP (like Supt. Of Education, etc.) nor any of the Amendments. A quick trip across the hall to find out that Hoyt would print off the total results at night’s end relieved my stress.
Back to the newsroom, the precincts began coming in more rapidly. With other big men in similar outfits rolling in the voting machines, stacking them atop the others. I put my glasses back on, being hopelessly nearsighted, and realized there were letters on the back of those similar shirts…ohhhh….. these were inmates from the Darlington County Detention Center. Hmm.
The numbers were called out by Mr. Booming Voice again, and the fun began. The precincts were tallying up at the bottom of the screen, and it began to shape up that incumbent U.S. Rep. John Spratt was killing Ralph Norman. Tall Michael had the cellphone to his ear non-stop. The race for Governor was neck in neck, and the local elections were clearly showing a lead for Dennie Neilson, Robert Williams, Anne Warr, and Tommy Jeffords. The tight race remained for School Board, between Thelma Dawson and Joyce Thomas. The chatter remained loud, and more and more people started milling in. As fast as I could get a count of precincts reporting and totals, another precinct would come in- the time went by so fast! The chatter increased as men on cell phones started calling their party headquarters, and local Darlington poll workers started predicting the winners.
That is, until someone inadvertently kicked the extension cord out of the wall, disabling the dvd projector screen. As I am famous for giggling inappropriately at serious events from weddings to keynote speeches, of course I found this to be hilarious. After worrying that it could have blown the bulb, that it wouldn’t come back on, it finally got fixed- until someone tried to tape it to the plug on the wall, knocking it back off again. “Welcome to South Carolina” I whispered to the Spratt campaigner, Tall Michael and Michael Essian from WPDE15. Heck, I can talk; I’m from a state that lets kids out of school in Aroostook County to help pick potatoes. I know exactly what it means to be low budget with good intentions.
The night ended as fast as it began; as promised, Hoyt Campbell gave us all a print out of the unofficial results, absentee votes included. I called AP, tried to fax the sheet to them but it was down, of course. I drove back and faxed it from Hartsville, and settled in to watch the national news along with everyone else. I checked The State webpage to read the election results from around the state, and smiled- knowing exactly where the AP results from Darlington County came from.
I am happy to see that U.S. Rep. John Spratt will continue on representing the Palmetto State so well on the U.S. Budget Committee, and that I got to watch Anne Warr’s granddaughter’s face as she learned that her Grandma won. I also felt very proud that I had somehow snapped a picture of another winner, the new SC State House of Rep. District 62 Robert Williams, back when he was just another person enjoying Katie Mincheff's baklava at the Taste of Hartsville last spring:
All in all, I am proud to be an American who has the right to vote, with no one stopping anyone from this true honor to choose and elect our government officials. And, although I didn’t get an official "AP press badge", being a stringer was pretty cool.
Hope your election night was just as fun!
Stringer Today - Investigative Beat Tomorrow
Congratulations on helping to keep the AP and the rest of our state up to date. Well done from those of us on the outside.
Build your community by being involved!
Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful
What a great story and so well written. Thanks for helping being such a positive part of our community. Election nights are so much fun. Mine was one I will always remember.
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