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Date Published: November 17, 2004
Jones expected to file protest today
By LESLIE CANTU
Item Staff Writer
lesliec@theitem.com
Dickie Jones is expected to file a protest of the state
Senate District 35 election today with the South Carolina State
Election Commission.
Jones, the Republican challenger who
lost to incumbent state Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, by 86 votes,
has until noon to file the protest. At a news conference Friday
afternoon, Jones indicated he definitely plans to protest the
election.
Jones was unavailable Tuesday.
“We need to
make sure all the votes were counted,” Jones has said.
Jones
has said his team’s investigation has shown discrepancies and
irregularities in the Nov. 2 election, but he wouldn’t say what
those irregularities are. His law partner and lawyer, J Cabot Seth,
has said the campaign is not looking at any one precinct.
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JONES |
| “We want to make sure this is
a very fair, clean election,” Jones has said.
After Friday’s
recount increased Leventis’ lead by 31 votes, Leventis criticized
Jones for dragging out the election. The person with the most votes
wins, Leventis said, whether he has 86 more votes, 860 more votes or
8,600 more votes.
“The voters have spoken,” Leventis has
said. “Anything else is not anything but trying to take this away
from the voters, not me.”
Leventis has said he believes the
state Republican Party is pushing Jones to protest the election, but
Jones said that simply isn’t true.
Marci Andino, the
executive director of the state election commission, said once the
commission receives all protests and appeals, it will set a schedule
for hearings in Columbia.
Seth has indicated the campaign
would like the commission to hold a new election.
Leventis
has said all the people who decided to vote for the first time this
year would be discouraged from participating in elections in the
future if they see the election commission holding another election.
Another election would cost money and take up the time of both the
election commission and the voters, he said.
The commission
must hold hearings for all protests by Dec. 11.
Contact
Staff Writer Leslie Cantu at lesliec@theitem.com or
803-774-1250.
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November 18, 2004 
