The controversy in the state District 30 Senate race thickened Wednesday as incumbent Sen. Maggie Wallace Glover announced she's filed lawsuits at the state and federal level asking the courts to overturn the state Democratic Party's invalidation of the June 8 Democratic primary.

On Tuesday, Glover filed a writ in S.C. Supreme Court, asking the court to overturn the State Democratic Party Executive Committee's decision to void the June 8 primary results.

The party's executive committee invalidated the election after hearing a protest from candidate Tim Norwood, alleging that absentee ballots were filled out illegally at a residential care facility in Mullins. He also alleged that several convicted felons were allowed to vote when they were ineligible to do so.

Glover followed up her suit in state court Wednesday by filing in U.S. Federal Court for a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop Gov. Mark Sanford and the state Democratic Party from invalidating the election results and setting a date for a new primary election.

The suit claims the Democratic Party should not have heard Norwood's protest because it was filed past the deadline. In addition, Glover claims she was not notified by the Democratic Party that the executive committee was going to hear Norwood's protest.

"I did not receive notice from the party itself, and by statute, they were required to notify me that they were going to hear Mr. Norwood's protest," Glover said.

Norwood maintains that because the mandatory recount was not conducted until June 14, he had until noon the following Monday to file his protest.

Glover said she is asking the court to order a runoff between her and Kent Williams, who placed second in the June 8 primary based on the recount results.

"If you had these kind of irregularities and you've got the same three people in the election again, what's to stop my opponents from engaging in the same activities again?" Glover asked.

"To me, a new election does not offer a solution," she said. "All a new election does is disenfranchise those who voted in the June 8 primary and help create more of the same voter apathy we've been working to get rid of."

Glover's lawsuit is the third filed in conjunction with the District 30 primary.

Earlier this week, Williams filed a similar suit with the Supreme Court, asking it to overturn the Democratic Party's decision on the basis that Norwood filed his protest two days past the deadline to do so.

Like Glover's, Williams' petition also asks the court to order the Democratic Party primary runoff election to proceed.

A day after Williams filed suit, the Florence County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stepped into the District 30 fray.

The civil rights organization is asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate possible violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the June 8 Democratic primary.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the NAACP said that the executive committee of the S.C. Democratic Party violated the act when it threw out the results of the primary and asked the governor to order a new election.

The Florence Branch of the NAACP said throwing out the election was wrong, and that a runoff between Glover and Williams should be ordered.

Officials from the U.S. Justice Department would neither confirm nor deny that they had received the request.

The NAACP's request marks the second time a law enforcement agency has been asked to look into the election. During its hearing of Norwood's protest, the Democratic Party's executive committee voted to turn Norwood's evidence over to the State Law Enforcement Division for an investigation into possible voter fraud.

Party officials are waiting for transcripts of the hearing to give to SLED when it officially requests an investigation.

The date of a new election would be set by the governor, but Sanford said he won't touch the issue until the Supreme Court deals with the pending lawsuits.