“They Said I Had Already Voted”– Dabo Swinney’s Attempt To Vote Went Totally Haywire

Despite the devastation from losing to Louisville on Saturday, Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney didn't let the defeat prevent him from doing his civic duty and voting on Election Day Tuesday. Only problem was, there was some serious confusion when he tried to cast his ballot. Dabo's real first name is William, which he shares with his eldest son. The apparent gaffe came when his son voted early, and whomever was in charge failed to verify William Jr.'s birthday. That meant Dabo was unable to vote, because his vote had already been counted on his son's behalf. While explaining the situation to the media, Dabo joked that he was being run out of South Carolina for this past weekend's loss, but then clarified what the real issue was. "They said…I'd already voted, and I was like, ‘No, I can assure you.’ I hadn't voted. ‘It says we issued you an early ballot and you voted.’ Like, no. And as it turns out, Will, my oldest, voted last week, and they messed it up. Didn't verify his birthday or something, and they counted me as the vote. So yeah, what was going to take 10 minutes took an hour. "[…] It was quite an experience this morning, but apparently, they're going to fix it on Friday, and me and Will, our two votes will count on Friday. I don't know if it'll matter on Friday, but trying to do my best and be a good citizen and go vote. Sometimes doing your best ain't good enough, but you have to keep going, though. Keep figuring it out." https://twitter.com/CarmineGemei/status/1853859501838831885 Dabo has a fair point regarding how much the votes he and son cast will ultimately matter. South Carolina is a predominantly red state. Since 1960, their voters have only gone against the Republican Party for president in direct response to Richard Nixon. That is, they gave John F. Kennedy the nod over Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, and voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 over Gerald Ford. In the wake of Nixon's Watergate scandal/resignation, Ford became president and ran again with Bob Dole once his interim stint in the Oval Office was up. However, South Carolina did vote Nixon for president in '68 and '72. OK side tangent on election history aside, this is just a funny mishap for Dabo and his son. It also makes me wonder how much of a nightmarish pitfall this could be if poll workers weren't so diligent. You're tracking so many votes and making sure the election goes on without a hitch. It'd be easy to overlook that two voters have the same name. You gotta be dialed in! Clearly the person in charge of distinguishing two generations of William Swinney in South Carolina got it wrong. I'm surprised we don't hear about more scenarios like this across the country. Also, what's the deal with the vote count having to wait till Friday due to some hearing or whatever? Don't we have a more streamlined process for an outlier case like this? Do we really need to hold a hearing on it? I'm not convinced! The good news is, both William Swinney votes in South Carolina will ultimately go on the record. But yeah, if I were Dabo, I'd be sweating things out a bit. Sure, you want to make sure you make the time to go vote, but planning to do a quick in-and-out on Election Day, only to be hung up for much longer than anticipated, has to be a frustrating experience. Seems like the ball coach kept a cool head and didn't let a rather big-picture minor hang-up derail his intentions to vote. As much as he must've wanted to get back to Clemson's campus and how to beat Virginia Tech this coming Saturday in Blacksburg, props to Dabo for the follow-through on voting. It would've been funny to hear the conversation between Dabo and William Jr. as this whole bizarre situation was going down, or what Dabo said to him in the aftermath. Here's hoping for a smooth election where most votes can be counted before Friday.