Precinct location consolidation not widely publicized — 131 polling places have been relocated. One-third of the polling locations in the largest county have been closed.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The “First in the South” Democratic primary will not have all of its precinct voting locations open on February 29. Despite the fact that South Carolina has an open primary and any registered voter can participate, the biggest county in the state has closed one-third of its polling locations.

Greenville County closed down 52 precincts; most of those precincts will be consolidated and some will be shifted into temporary locations, but instead of 151 polling locations, Greenville County will have only 118. Across the state, 131 precinct polling places will be relocated.

Consolidating polling stations is a regular occurrence in South Carolina, and Greenville has already planned to do it for the first four elections of this year. “We did that for January 7th, for January 21st, we did it for tomorrow’s election on the 29th and for a sheriff’s election on March 10,” County Executive Conway Belangia told the Prospect. “All of those [elections] being countywide.”

This precinct consolidation for the highest-profile 2020 election in South Carolina has not been publicized, however. Instead, the new voting location for residents is updated on the South Carolina Election Commission website. “They don’t tell people what’s been closed. They’ll tell you where to go,” said Brett Bursey, executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network. Regular registered voters are unlikely to go online to confirm their polling location before every election.

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