Here's a shot from a few hours ago, showing 3 vortices rotating around a large ring north of the convection. The most well defined vortex just moved north out of the area of convection and is (was) heading northward:
http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/alex3.gif
That vortex is now heading westward and will soon turn southwestward as it rotates counter-clockwise. I can now see another eddy on the SC coast that's moving southward.
Clearly, the "depression" is in a state that would not generally qualify for upgrading to TD status, but the NHC won't downgrade it since it's near the coast. Wind shear remains high, but there may be a brief period tonight when the wind shear shifts from NE to SW when the shear may relax enough for some squalls to build northward closer to the center (before the squalls shift to the NE-E quadrant tomorrow).
All it'll take is one FL wind of 40-45kts for them to upgrade it. That could easily happen in that area of squalls, so we can't rule out this becoming Alex, even though it doesn't have a well-defined circulation.