State GOP officials tackle Selby-Trout protest

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But lawyers for incumbent Steve Selby and incumbent Tony Trout said Saturday's protest hearing in Columbia isn't likely to resolve the issue because the ruling will almost certainly be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

The state Republican Executive Committee will take up Trout's appeal of a local GOP decision overturning the results of the June 22 Republican runoff.

Trout's 18-vote victory was thrown out after Selby argued a litany of voting irregularities marred the results.

Confusion over the election doesn't end with the conduct of the runoff. There still is disagreement over who would be eligible to vote if a new election is ordered.

Luke Byars, executive director of the state party, and election commission spokeswoman Hannah Majewski said it will be up to Gov. Mark Sanford to decide which voters could participate.

According to the election commission, Sanford could:

Call for a new election, which would make all District 18 voters eligible to cast ballots.

Call for a revote of the runoff, which would prevent voters in the June 8 Democratic primary from participating.

But Todd Kincannon, a local Republican Party leader and chairman of the nonpartisan Simpsonville Election Commission, said Sanford can only call for a revote.

"The statutes are clear that the governor can only order a new election that is redo of an election that has been voided," said Kincannon, who oversaw the protest of last year's mayoral election.

Will Folks, Sanford's spokesman, said the governor will have no comment until the appeals are finished and the issue reaches his desk.

Conway Belangia, the county's election director, said he wasn't sure what the rules of the new election would be. "It all comes down to an interpretation of the law," he said. "When they tell me to conduct a new election, they'll tell me how."

The winner of the contest will face Democrat Jeff White in November's general election.

Selby's attorney, local GOP executive committeeman Samuel Harms, argued that dozens of votes are in question — from voters casting more than one ballot, voters wrongly participating in both the Democratic primary and Republican runoff and workers not marking party affiliation on voter rolls.

"We're going to present evidence to the executive committee that felons and Democrats voted in the election against election laws, and the decision of the Greenville County (GOP) executive committee to have a new election should stand," he said.

Another independent attorney, Tim Hurley, helped Harms during the Greenville hearing.

Trout will be represented by four local attorneys — Ted Gentry from Wyche, Burgess, Freeman and Parham, Bill Foster from Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, William Herlong of Anderson and Herlong, and independent attorney Jim Hennigan.

"We think that if they look closely at the law, they'll see that every single one of the points that Mr. Selby has raised should have been raised at the polls," Herlong said. "Because they weren't, we think it's too late."

Today's hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and will be combined with the regular quarterly meeting, which was moved up from July 17 to accommodate the appeal.

The state Executive Committee consists of a single member from each of the state's 45 county Republican parties. They heard a similar appeal three weeks ago in the contest between Spartanburg state Senate candidate Lee Bright and incumbent John Hawkins. Hawkins' 31-vote victory was upheld by the committee.

The appeal will be held much like a legal appeal — the committee can only consider the facts as determined by the local GOP, Byars said. However, he said that if 18 of the 45 committee members move to rehear the protest, all of the evidence could be presented again.

Kincannon said that if all District 18 voters are allowed to vote, he expects further legal challenges.

The soonest a new election could be held would be 60 to 90 days after the legal challenges are completed, Belangia said. The cost would be at least $3,600 and would be picked up by the state.

Jason Zacher can be reached at 298-4272.