Dabo Swinney denied ability to vote in South Carolina: 'They done voted me out of the state'

Dabo Swinney wasn’t expecting to face defense away from the gridiron. During a press conference on Election Day, the Clemson head coach revealed that he initially wasn’t allowed to vote when he visited his local polling place.

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

Swinney said the poll workers claimed that the system indicated he’d already voted. In reality, the system was mistaking Dabo — whose legal first name is William — for his son with the same name, who had voted last week.

Swinney ultimately completed a paper ballot and will have a hearing on Friday to resolve the issue. The 54-year-old head coach had a sense of humor about the unusual ordeal.

“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 said. “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.”

Dabo Swinney’s best wasn’t good enough on Saturday when the Tigers suffered a 33-21 loss to Louisville. It was the Tigers’ first loss this season since falling to Georgia 34-3 in the season opener.

After Swinney’s hearing on Friday, he’ll piece together his final game plans to try and find a bounce-back victory against Virginia Tech on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on ESPN.