FLORENCE - A federal judge will consider a petition filed by Sen. Maggie Glover in the controversial S.C. Senate District 30 race today.

Glover filed a petition in the U.S. District Court in Florence asking the court to throw out the decision by the S.C. Democratic Party’s Executive Committee to invalidate the June 8 primary election. Glover said the party’s decision violated the Voter Rights Act.

A hearing for Glover’s petition is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Judge Terry Wooten’s courtroom at the McMillan Federal Building. Wooten gave attorneys in the case until Monday to file motions in the case.

Glover’s petition names the Democratic Party, the State Election Commission, the Florence County Election Commission and the Gov. Mark Sanford as defendants. During an initial hearing July 26, Wooten suggested there was case law that would prevent him from hearing the petition, but he left it up to the attorneys to present the cases. Attorneys for the Democratic Party filed two letters with Wooten, citing several cases which they say demonstrate that the federal courts have no jurisdiction in the case.

At the July 26 hearing, attorneys for the governor’s office asked that the governor be dismissed from the petition and Glover’s attorneys agreed to the move.

Wooten could deny a hearing on the petition, which would leave the decision on a special election in the hands of Sanford.

Sanford said he would not order an election until all court appeals are exhausted.

Glover and candidate Kent Williams each filed a similar appeal with the S.C. Supreme Court. The court denied Glover and Williams a hearing, leaving the final appeal in the case in Wooten’s court.

The controversy over the Senate District 30 race began after the primary. The initial vote count showed Glover ahead, but in a runoff election with candidate Tim Norwood, with Norwood ahead of Williams by just seven votes. Two days later, when election commissions from Dillon, Marion, Marlboro and Florence counties certified the election, the count showed Norwood ahead by only six votes.

By law, the State Election Commission was required to send the results back to the county election commissions for a recount because less than 1 percent of the total vote separated Williams and Norwood. That recount came up with yet another result, one that put Williams ahead of Norwood by six votes and put him in the runoff with Glover.

Norwood protested the results with the S.C. Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, citing irregularities in the election, particularly in the counting of absentee votes. The committee threw out the results and asked Sanford to set a date for a new election. Both Glover and Williams have argued that Norwood missed a deadline to file a petition in the election.

State election laws give a candidate until the Monday following the final canvassing of votes to file a protest. Glover argues that because Norwood did not file his protest until after the Monday following the election, it should not have been heard, and is therefore in violation of the Voter Rights Act.

Norwood argued that because the recount was not held until the Monday following the election, he had until the next Monday to file a protest.

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