All but two representatives of the nine-member commission were asked to step down following a June 8 primary election riddled with problems, including results that included hundreds more votes than actual voters.
State Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Jasper County, and Rep. Thayer Rivers, D-Jasper County, said they sent their commission nominees to Gov. Mark Sanford in June, immediately following the botched primary. But the state leader sat on the appointments until last week when he approved them.
Appointments to county election commissions are usually affirmed by a county's local legislative delegation but must be rubber-stamped by the governor.
"I'm dismayed it took the governor five months to make the appointments," Rivers said Tuesday.
Sanford spokesman Will Folks said the delay was simply a matter of board nominees having to send back their applications.
"We have no control of how long it takes an applicant to fill out those forms," he said, adding that the governor didn't receive nominations from Pinckney and Rivers until Aug. 19. "It's unfortunate Rep. Rivers chose to wait a month before sending in a letter naming the people."
The new commissioners were notified by letter of the governor's official appointments last week.
Charles Baker, Jimmy Daley, Eugene Hicks, Lillian King, James Rhodes Jr., John Simmons and Carl Tyler will replace Lawrence Bowers, Barbara Pinckney, Jack Lee, Sharon Terry-Davis and Leroy Sneed on the commission.
Donald Sheftall and Jake Rawl, both of Ridgeland, were the only commissioners to survive the board's overhaul.
With less than a week until Election Day, the seven new commissioners will start their training immediately
Gary Baum, director of training for the state Election Commission, will be at today's meeting to start the lessons.
The commission will go "over some of the requirements of (the position), election day procedures at the polls, canvassing the official results and provisional ballot hearing procedures," he said.
The commission will meet at 5 p.m. in council chambers at the Mary Ellis Gordon Executive Building.