Thank you Shawn for keeping up to date on this. Great reporting throughout this issue.

I had to leave the hearing early. I was there long enough to hear MS. McBride’s testimony that the improper amount of I-vote machines was due to a clerical error. An administrator, as of that point in the hearing remained unnamed, mistook handwritten revisions to the precinct distribution schedule(in red on Exhibit B) to add additional PEBs (Personal Electronic Ballot devise) as a revision to the number of I-vote machines to be allocated. A final list was of I-vote machine allocation was erroneously generated based on the typically smaller number of PEBs needed at each location.
This is an assumption on my part; The PEBs are the laptops that the poll workers use to check in voters.

Richland County has no early voting procedure. It is an absentee ballot system. You have to state on the application one of over a dozen different acceptable reasons you cannot vote on Election Day to receive the ballot. There is no exception stating that you can’t wait in line for 5 hours.

I have a couple of questions regarding early voting:

At what point in the process does the registered voter present the proper credentials to receive the ballot in the mail for early/absentee voting.

Once the ballot is received at the address on the registration how is it known that the person who fills it out is the person to whome it was sent to?

How is the secrecy of the ballot maintained with your name and address on the envelope?

I was reminded of an excellent article in the Sate Newspaper by Clif LeBlanc on Nov 11th which reported on the deficiencies in the I-vote machine checking process. A Mr. Williams who formerly performed the procedures with apparent success noted discrepancies as far back as the winter.

http://www.thestate.com/2012/11/11/2515647/vote-counting-expert-former-voting.html