|
Date Published: November 11, 2004
District 35 recount set for Friday
|
Chris Moore / The Item
Sumter County Election Commission member Cindy
Macias, left, reads off reasons a ballot is being
challenged to other board members during a provisional
ballot hearing for the state Senate District 35 race on
Friday at the Sumter County Courthouse. |
| |
By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com
The South Carolina Election Commission meets today to
certify the results of last week's general election, at which time
they're expected to order a recount for the state Senate District 35
race.
The Sumter County Election Commission is already
planning a recount at 9 a.m. Friday at the Sumter County Courthouse.
The Lee County Election Commission will hold a recount at the same
time.
Because the margin between the two candidates is less
than 1 percent, state law says the election commissions must recount
the votes. Unofficially, state Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, has
15,632 votes and Republican challenger Dickie Jones has 15,577
votes.
Leventis, who won re-election by 55 votes according
to the unofficial totals, said he is confident the recount will
affirm the initial results. He is ready to move on to the business
of representing Sumter and Lee counties, he said.
"The
recount won't reverse the election," Leventis said. "The machines
that count them are very accurate and repeatable. The election
really is over."
|
 |
|
LEVENTIS | |
|
 |
|
JONES | |
Jones
said he will wait until the recount to make a decision about
appealing the election.
"If the recount comes back favorable
to us, likely we won't need to protest," Jones said. "If the recount
comes back the same, then we do have grounds to
protest."
Candidates have five calendar days after a recount
to file a protest of the election, said Hannah Majewski of the South
Carolina Election Commission.
The Jones campaign is using
the time before the recount to investigate whether the law was
followed exactly during the election, said J Cabot Seth, Jones' law
partner.
"If either side decides to appeal to the election
commission, they have to show there were enough irregularities that
the election should be overturned," Seth said. "We're not going to
limit it to any one precinct. We're doing research on all the
precincts."
Leventis also has lawyers working on his behalf,
but in the meantime he is working on constituent requests and ideas
for new legislation, he said.
"The only way to overturn the
election is to employ a legion of lawyers to make up reasons why
groups or individuals' votes shouldn't count," Leventis said.
Leventis believes the state Republican Party, not Jones, is
pushing for an appeal.
"The only problems I saw were caused
by poll watchers from the other side trying to create chaos,"
Leventis said.
Jones, however, said he will "certainly" file
an appeal if he thinks it has merit.
Although a recount could
change the vote totals a little, neither side anticipates the
election swinging to Jones' favor.
Ironically, if the county
had held the election and recount with electronic voting machines,
the totals would not change at all. Majewski said a recount with
electronic voting machines wouldn't change because of the accuracy
of the machines. A recount would simply involve rereading the
computer cartridges inserted into the machines. But Leventis
believes the electronic voting machines' consistency is not a plus
but a flaw.
"We wouldn't have the ability to reconstruct
anything," Leventis said. "There's no way to validate what the
individuals really did."
Even if the vote totals do change a
little in his favor, Jones said the punch card machines are not to
his advantage in this situation.
"This is not working to my
advantage that the machines might be faulty," Jones said. "It's to
everybody's disadvantage actually."
Contact Staff Writer
Leslie Cantu at lesliec@theitem.com or
803-774-1250.
E-mail
to a friend Previous
Page |
November 12, 2004 
