TheDigitel
While South Carolina is still awaiting U.S. Justice Department review of the new voter photo ID law, Governor Nikki Haley's free rides to the DMV so voters without photo identification can get the new state voting cards has only netted a few dozen respondents.
Those rides are slated for today.
Charleston's NBC News 2 has a nice video report (watch that here) and their The Post and Courier has a nice written report (read that here). Locally, WPDE has coverage here.
The reason for the low response rate isn't clear, but it is drastically lower than the number of voters in South Carolina that will need a photo identification. The S.C. Election Commission says of our 2.5 million registered voters, 178,175 will need to get identification — that's just about 8.9%.
The DMV rides have received some heat for narrow time windows (you had to RSVP for specific time slots on just one day) and the burden for the state's older residents to get the needed documentation.
Haley had originally proposed the DMV rides to show that the state was committed to not deterring voters with the new law, but it is possible that the very low turnout will have the opposite effect.
For more information on the current status of the law and what you may need to do if it is approved, head to the S.C. Election Commission's webpage.
