Florence residents to vote twice in primaries

If you live in Florence and plan on voting in Tuesday's primary elections, be prepared to cast two ballots.

City residents essentially will be voting in separate elections on the same voting machine. The first will be for the county, state and federal elections, while the second ballot is for Florence's city primary. The city elections, previously held earlier in the year, are completely separate from all the other contests.

In addition, a city resident can vote in one party’s city primary and the other party’s county, state and federal primary. You can vote in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate race and in the city's Democratic primary -- or vice versa.

Here’s how Florence voters will vote Tuesday, according to acting county elections director Steve Love:

— A voter will check in at the polling place and receive a token for his or her ballot style in the federal, state and county primaries.
— A clerk will ask whether the voter wishes to cast a ballot in Florence’s Democratic or Republican primary.
— The voter will then receive a paper card stating which city primary they will vote in.
— After the voter casts a federal, state and county ballot, a clerk will reactivate the voting machine with the appropriate city ballot.

Also, I want to get some reactions to the Florence mayoral debate, which took place Tuesday at Francis Marion University. We don't see many debates for local elected offices, so if any of you were there or watched it on WBTW or cable channel 11, I'd like to know what you thought.

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