Clemson Football Coach Dabo Swinney Denied Ability To Vote On Election Day After Polling Mishap

While voting is typically a seamless and painless process, there are instances where it can be difficult, at least in the states that actually require a photo ID to vote. South Carolina is one of those states, and Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney fell victim to a nightmare scenario at the voting booth on Election Day.

During his Tuesday news conference, Swinney explained that he wasn’t allowed to vote at his local polling place. 

“They done voted me out of the state,” Swinney joked before getting into specifics. “We’re 6-2 and 5-1, man. They done shipped me off.”

It’s honestly a pretty solid joke from Swinney given that Clemson fans aren’t exactly pleased with him at the moment after the Tigers lost at home to Louisville this past weekend to fall to 6-2 on the year.

The head coach went on to explain that when poll workers looked up his name in the system, it had indicated that he had already voted in the election. What actually happened was the system was mistaking Dabo – whose legal first name is William – for his son with the same name. Dabo’s son voted the week before, hence the error in the system telling the head coach he couldn’t vote again.

Dabo Swinney had a rather bad experience trying to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election. (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images)

“Will, my oldest, voted last week, and they somehow messed it up, didn’t verify his birthday or something, and they counted me as the vote,” Swinney explained. “So, what was going to take 10 minutes, took an hour. Next thing, I’m on the phone with some director, I think her name was Amy, super sweet lady, and she’s trying to tell me this whole process.

“It was quite an experience this morning, but apparently they’re gonna 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 yeah. It was trying to do my best and be a good citizen and go vote. Sometimes doing your best, ain’t good enough. Going to keep figuring it out.”

As for resolving the problem, Swinney had to complete an old-school paper ballot and will have a hearing on Friday regarding the issue. 

On the one hand, it’s assuring to know that the system does work in identifying any voters who could be looking to cast more than one vote, but on the other, having to wait three days until after Election Day to have a hearing about your vote seems incredibly drawn out.

At least Swinney was able to have a sense of humor about the situation, because most, myself included, wouldn’t exactly be in the joking mood after a mishap in the system led to an hour at the voting booth.