Democracy belongs in the hands of qualified voters

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Tony Trout: Democracy belongs in the hands of qualified voters (07/06/04) • Sybil D. Smith: Faith can guide us to make healthy lifestyle choices (07/05/04) • Bob Leach: Pig stunt sullied truth about Assembly's achievements (07/04/04) • John C. Stockwell: USC Upstate aims to be leading metropolitan university (07/04/04) • Susan Wood: Accelerated cleanup removes most of worst SRS waste (07/03/04) More details Tony Trout is a lifelong Greenville County resident, graduated from Hillcrest High School and attended the police academy in Columbia. He owns a security business and spent 13 years as a police officer. About Top Jobs

Certified election results should be upheld whenever possible, so I will continue my efforts to ensure that they are upheld for as long as that's possible. While the losing candidate, Steven Selby, will be arguing his self-serving position to uphold the vote of a body comprised largely of his campaign workers, a fellow councilman and other cronies, my goal is to uphold the will of the people of District 18.

If this election was supposed to be decided by the Greenville County GOP Executive Committee there would be no reason for anybody but Mr. Selby to run. He may have served their interests well — but I am determined to serve the interests of District 18 and the citizens of Greenville County.

Mr. Selby is trying to throw out the votes of lifelong Republicans by looking at stray pencil marks to contend that they became ineligible Democrats-for-a-day. He suggests poll workers' corrections to voting records are "irregularities."

Where Florida is now the home of the hanging chad, Mr. Selby wants Greenville to become home of the "graphite transfer." His protest claims are flawed and desperate attempts to get another shot at convincing District 18 that he can be a viable candidate in November. He had eight years to make that case and failed to do so. If there is a revote, that alarming fact won't change.

My campaign as the Republican candidate in November continues. I will provide the conservative leadership that District 18 deserves. In the meantime, my legal team will focus on the past and Mr. Selby. I have asked them to use all reasonable means to keep Mr. Selby from (1) sandbagging a handful of voters whose votes were found accurate and certifiable by the nonpartisan Greenville County Election Commission, (2) throwing out everyone's vote because, on election day, he didn't bother to challenge the several votes he's now questioning and (3) suggesting that the civic-minded and patriotic people who work the polls and run our elections engage in activities that would call an entire election into question.

My appeal is about upholding the integrity of the election process — and, more than anything else — it's about respecting the voters and their preference as reflected in the certified election results. With that much at stake, I am duty-bound as the winning candidate to defend the election results until the election results are upheld and safe from further attack.

Democracy is a serious enterprise well worth fighting for. Our American soldiers have fought for it here and abroad. This idea that people can run to their friends or the courts to overturn election results is a bad idea that is becoming all too popular since November 2000. It's time to put an end to that way of thinking and put democracy in the hands of registered voters where it belongs and where it should stay.

Mr. Selby's revote request is also an automatic invitation to the Department of Justice to conduct a 60-day review and, quite possibly, having them send in government election monitors according to federal voting rights laws. That's an important, practical reason why subjecting Greenville to another vote, at taxpayer expense, is a bad idea — unless, of course, you are committed to having our community portrayed in the most negative light possible.

Fortunately, the laws of South Carolina favor democracy and give no room for the kind of claims that Mr. Selby has alleged. Fortunately, for the voters of District 18 and Greenville County, the election process in Greenville County is run superbly by the Election Office, the volunteers and civic-minded people who staff the polling precincts, and the bipartisan Election Commission that certified the June 22 election.

Once Mr. Selby's claims are exposed to people who believe in the laws of South Carolina and the principles of democracy, the cloud cast by Mr. Selby will be lifted and it will be morning in Greenville once again.