At Brentwood Middle School, where people voted in North Charleston’s 14th and 9th precincts, the lines were long. So long, that one woman read the better part of a novel. A married couple left after two hours and planned to return later.
Hundreds waited in the school’s gymnasium at noon. Amy Jeffers had arrived a few minutes after 7 a.m., and was just leaving.
“I’ve never seen it like this,” said Jeffers, who is 38 and has voted since turning 18. “Very few people were actually getting angry-angry or even excited. They were just numb.”
The line for Precinct 4 seemed to be moving faster than the one for Precinct 19. The long wait allowed Jeffers to read most of Anne Rice’s “Interview with the Vampire.”
A few minutes later, Patrick A. Jenkins and his wife gave up. They originally went into the line for Precinct 4. When they got to a desk at the front of the gym two hours later, they realized they were in the wrong line – they should have been in the one for Precinct 19.
They left, because Jenkins’ wife just had back surgery and wasn’t able to stand much longer.
“They need a sign outside the building,” he said, as he started to drive away in a minivan. “The main thing is they just don’t have a sign outside the building.”
They planned to return in a couple of hours. --Noah Haglund
Comments