DOJ to observe Charleston County polling sites as GOP voters choose Graham or Norman

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — The United States Department of Justice plans to observe some of Charleston County’s polling locations Tuesday as Republican voters look to cast their ballots in a runoff election between Sen. Darline Graham and U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman.

Officials with the Department of Justice did not detail which polling locations in the county they plan to send monitors. However, Isaac Cramer, the executive director of the Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections, affirmed the presence of DOJ poll watchers as “a routine and wellestablished part of the election process.”

Already, the Department of Justice has monitored other states’ primary elections, including Florida and Wyoming, on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

“Our election workers will continue to follow state and federal law throughout the day to ensure our elections remain legal, fair, accessible to all eligible voters,” Cramer said in a statement.

Despite much of the upstate region harboring most of the state’s Republicans, Charleston County was still selected. And it comes after the Trump administration announced it planned to dispatch 1,000 monitors across the country to watch operations during November’s midterm elections.

The commitment has worried some voting rights experts because the president has repeatedly denied the results of election defeats and, in recent months, has escalated concerns that he will meddle in state-administered elections.

On Tuesday, South Carolina Republican voters will choose between Graham and Norman for the party nomination in the state’s Senate race. The winner will face Democrat Dr. Annie Andrews in November.

Polls are open around the state from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.