GOP Committee Rules On Spartanburg County Election Results

A battle over a nomination for state Senate went before a Republican committee Thursday.

Republican Lee Bright lost to incumbent Sen. John Hawkins by 31 votes in the primary race for Senate District 12 last week.

Earlier this week, Bright filed papers citing 18 reasons he believes are grounds for contesting the election.

Bright's attorney said there were enough irregularities to cast doubt on the final vote total.

"Were there places where people had been allowed to vote who had not signed? We went through all the records to check that. Did the numbers in the precinct match the number of votes in the official total? We went through and checked all of that," attorney Tim Hurley said.

Bright claimed some of the votes were invalid because they did not have the proper signatures.

He also said convicted felons were wrongfully allowed to vote, and that in some precincts, the number of ballots cast did not match vote totals.

Hawkins’ attorney called witnesses to explain the irregularities and said Bright should have asked election officials for clarification before calling for this hearing.

"Our electoral process depends on elections being decided at the ballot box, not in courtroom contests. A protest should be a rare thing. The deliberation of a protest should be made after a complete and thorough airing of the facts," attorney Charlie Terreni said.

The committee, made up of GOP leaders from each county across the state, ruled late Thursday that the results of the election should stand.

"I think that the big winners are the people of Spartanburg County because their votes were counted and recounted and the integrity of the system is strong," Hawkins said.

"Definitely, Sen. Hawkins has been around politics a lot longer than I have. He's a much more polished politician, so I think that we learned a lot and next time it may be different," Bright said.

Bright said he has not decided if he will appeal the decision to the South Carolina Supreme Court.