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Date Published: July 2, 2004
Party orders new primary
By RANDY BURNS
Item Staff Writer
rburns@theitem.com
COLUMBIA – There will be a new Democratic primary for the
District 2 seat on the Lee County school board after the state party
ruled some voters might have been intimidated at the
polls.
The executive committee of the South Carolina
Democratic Party voted Thursday to sustain candidate E. Sutton’s
protest of the June 8 Democratic primary after holding a hearing in
Columbia that lasted more than three hours.
During the
hearing, Sutton presented direct testimony from witnesses and voter
affidavits that convinced many of the committee members that
irregularities took place in the primary.
The committee
decided by a vote of 31-5 that evidence indicated poll workers in
the Bishopville 4 precinct intimidated black voters and sent voters
back to the election commission office without voting if there was a
question about voting eligibility.
Some of those who were
sent away returned to vote, others didn’t, according to testimony
from Mary Grant, a candidate for a Lee County Council seat, and her
campaign manager, Deborah Wilson.
|
SUTTON |
| One voter stated she was given
the wrong ballot and not allowed to vote in the primary even though
she is a resident of District 2. Another voter reported that he was
not allowed to vote even after showing his driver’s
license.
After the presentation of evidence and prior to the
committee vote, party Chairman Joe Erwin told the committee members
that the Democratic Party had an opportunity to send a message to
voters.
“We’ve got a problem here,” Erwin said. “We are going
to be all about integrity. We have a chance to instill in voters
that we are going to hold elections where their votes
count.”
Sutton came in third in the primary, trailing
incumbent Jewell Tindall by three votes, 203-200. Kay Stuckey was
the leading vote-getter with 269 votes.
In a runoff June 22,
Tindall defeated Stuckey 180-175.
No Republicans are running,
so the primary winner is all but assured the seat.
Party
officials said they will be sending a request to the governor asking
him to set a new date for the District 2 school board primary. Party
officials said the ballot will include all three
candidates.
“It’s a new day,” Sutton said. “The S.C.
Democratic Party is granting us a new start.”
Al Holland,
Lee County’s representative on the state Democratic Party executive
committee, voted in support of Sutton’s protest at Thursday’s
hearing. In an unanimous 10-0 vote at a June 17 local protest
hearing held in Bishopville, Holland voted to deny Sutton’s protest
because he said the evidence that was presented was
hearsay.
Sutton appealed to the state committee, which voted
June 19 to grant Sutton the new hearing at the state
level.
“As I’ve been saying, show me the evidence,” Holland
said. “Based on the evidence he presented tonight, I saw enough to
convince me that there were enough irregularities that took place
for Mr. Sutton to deserve a new election.”
Holland said he
did not believe any of the poll workers intended to deny anyone an
opportunity to vote.
“They might have been overzealous in
carrying out some procedures,” he said. “If they sent someone away,
there was no intent to deny someone from voting.”
Holland
said during the hearing he was disturbed that the reputation of good
people (poll workers) was being tarnished.
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July 2, 2004 
