Paper voting to end?
Bluffton might shed tradition
BY JUSTIN PAPROCKI, The Island Packet    November 15, 2005

BLUFFTON A town tradition might come to a close after today's election.

Bluffton's long-standing practice of voting on paper ballots and then tallying them out loud very likely will end with today's election for the Town Council seat that opened with the death of Oscar Frazier.

"This will probably be the last time," said Mayor Hank Johnston. "I think (the town) is getting too big."

Residents can gather in Town Hall to watch the Bluffton Election Commission read off each vote soon after the polls close at 7 p.m.

The votes are tallied with slash marks on a blackboard. Audience members call out "tally" each time a group of five votes is recorded.

The paper balloting and counting have been kept for tradition's sake, but as the population increases, electronic voting will be the most efficient practice, Johnston said.

"We'll do it one last time," Johnston said, "to show the candidates and to show the public the old way of doing things."

Town Council will officially decide when to make the switch.

Beaufort County elections director Agnes Garvin said paper balloting is rare in counties the size of Beaufort. Bluffton is the only municipality in the county that sticks to the old-fashioned way.

"It's rather unusual," she said.

But making the switch to electronic voting shouldn't be an issue. Earlier this year, the county received about 350 voting machines and the town is welcome to use them, Garvin said.

The town won't, however, part anytime soon with its practice of holding regular elections in December, a move done to bring more focus to Bluffton issues, Johnston said.

Today's vote pits candidates Fred Hamilton Jr., Larry Toomer and William Rivers in a special election to replace Frazier, who was the town's mayor pro tem when he died in August. The winner will serve the remainder of Frazier's term, which ends in December 2008.