Even a school board election can't escape the fallout of the Carolina Investors scandal in Pickens.

Many voters are just discovering that the school board chairman, Dan Sharpe, was on the Carolina Investors board from the late 1990's until the firm went bankrupt.

At Tony's Restaurant this afternoon, it was clear that voters may punish him for it.

"Will that make a difference in your vote?" we asked waitress Lisa Ronk.

"Yes it would," she said. "I wouldn't vote for him 'cause that's not right. Because (of) the way they done."

Larry Madden and Jack Haskett lost money in the collapse.

Haskett says he's definitely not supporting Sharpe. But Madden's not sure yet. After all, he says, Sharpe is a friend.

"I'm still undecided on that," said Madden. "I have voted for him and supported him in the past. Every time he has run for office I have voted for him. But this does raise a question."

Sharpe says that when he was on the Carolina Investors board he really had no power and didn't know what was going on.

Though he declined to go on camera, he told News Channel 7 it was really just a public relations job.

That didn't sit well with Furman economist Tom Smythe.

"That, in fact, is a misinterpretation of what a board is supposed to do," said Smythe. "The reality is they're there to provide oversight for management. Whether or not that is how they functioned is a separate issue."

We also told the investors what Sharpe is saying.

"Do you think that lets him off?" we asked them.

"No sir," said Haskett, "because if you're on the board of directors you should know what's going on. No matter how low on the totem pole you are or whatever."

In trying to maintain his innocence, Sharpe accurately points out that his name was not among the long list of company officers being sued by the trustee in the case.

Attorney Chris Olson, who investigated Sharpe after the collapse, says his team did not go after Sharpe because they felt he was "innocent" and that "he didn't know what was going on" at Carolina Investors. 

Still, just the name of the firm associated with your own can be enough to make voters think twice about supporting you.

Dawson Ahrens of Pickens said he hadn't heard of the connection before but "I guess, you know, you think of all the bankruptcy, all the stuff, all the legal problems with Carolina Investors."

And he's not sure how he's going to vote now.

Meanwhile, Sharpe's defense that he was out of the loop is a hard sell here, where life has been upended by the $278 million collapse.