Voters casting their ballots today in Aiken County

Nov. 8—Editor's note: Check back with Aiken Standard for election results as this article will be updated throughout the day.

The 2022 general election is being held across the nation today, and the polls opened at 7 a.m. Here's what was happening at the various precincts in Aiken County.

1:30 p.m.

Sandy Hochel, a poll watcher for Aiken County Democratic Party at the Midland Valley No. 51 precinct at Aiken County Career Center, said, "This was our first precinct and very impressed. The poll clerk was doing a great job trying to accommodate, take care of, there was only one problem and she was great at following the rules and trying to help. Otherwise they were all very efficient."

Mary Schorsch, poll watcher for Aiken County Democratic Party at the Midland Valley No. 51 precinct at Aiken County Career Center, said, "Pretty busy, I think they said there have already been 400 people that voted today (as of just before 1:30 p.m.)."

11:30 a.m.

Mary Ethel Stack and Laura Jones vote at St. John's United Methodist Church in Aiken. Stack said she was voting because she felt it was her obligation to do so. Jones said she wanted to vote in the races for state superintendent of education and governor.

11:10 a.m.

Chris Derr and Stephane Vomund voted at Graniteville Community Church of God. Derr said he had no problems with voting.

11 a.m.

Thirty or so people were waiting in line to vote at the H. Odell Weeks Activities Center on Tuesday morning around 11 a.m.

Monitoring the process were two poll watchers from the Aiken County Democratic Party.

One of them, Pete LaBerge, reported that they had visited several precincts.

"We've seen a lot of people voting," he said. "We've seen very, very few glitches. Everything is running pretty smoothly. There are the usual things — provisional ballots, when somebody's name is changed and they couldn't get registered — but they're just minor. We've seen friendly people and friendly poll workers."

10:55 a.m.

Gwen Whitt voted by mobile voting machine at Christian Heritage Church in Graniteville. Kenneth Keenan voted by voting machine inside the church. Keenan said he was voting an all-Republican ballot because he wanted to get out of the high inflation.

10:45 a.m.

North Augusta's Grace Fellowship Church had a steady flow of voters mid-morning, and an election judge said that everything there was going smoothly.

10:30 a.m.

Mossy Creek Elementary School in North Augusta, a combined polling location for precincts 68 and 85, was busy mid-morning: all of the voter booths were full. An election judge at the precinct reported that by 10:30 a.m., 201 of the precinct's 2,881 voters had cast a ballot.

10:18 a.m.

Poll Clerk Clevon Bryant reported that 46 people had voted at the Smith-Hazel Recreation Center in Aiken.

"It's been going pretty good. It's been steady. Everything is running smoothly," Bryant said.

Voting was a family affair for Chevonya Hartley. She brought three of her six children with her to the precinct.

"We actually just left from taking my mom to vote," Hartley said. "She votes on the other side of town, and I was like, 'OK, on the way back, we're going to stop and let me vote before we go home.' I try to vote every time. My voice needs to be heard in ways that I can make it count."

10:05 a.m.

An election judge at North Augusta's Riverview Activities Center said that voting was steady this morning and that 122 people of the precinct's 1,467 registered voters had already been by.

9:15 a.m.

More than a hundred and so voters had already cast their ballots at the New Ellenton Community Center.

Mary Gardener of Aiken said she came out to vote because she wanted to get the right people in office and feels like the government is taking everything away.

"I don't like the president," she said.

Joanne and Earl Burns, both of Aiken said crime, the economy, illegal immigration and abortion were reasons why they decided to cast their votes.

"We are very fired up and couldn't wait for it to get here," Joanne said.

The couple said things in South Carolina have been good, but would like a change on the federal level.

"Biden is just a known liar, and I don't believe nothing he says," Earl said.

Lynn Taylor said in addition to the economy, gun control was a major issue for her. She doesn't want gun regulation in order for people to have guns.

"I vote in every election, and it is important to do, especially now with the economy," Taylor said.

David Patterson of New Ellenton said he feels like things have taken a bad turn, so hopefully getting out to vote could change some things.

"Get out and vote, it doesn't matter," he said.

Rebekah Sutherland of New Ellenton said she agrees with the Supreme Court's decision in overturning Roe v. Wade because the sovereign people should make the decision closer to home.

Dorothy Brown, who moved to New Ellenton from New York City in 2002, said she is concerned about voting access and rights. She said people will try to make voting harder with voter intimidation at the polls.

Staff writers Bianca Moorman, Elizabeth Hustad, Matthew Christian and Stephanie Hill contributed to this article.