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Web posted Tuesday,
December 7, 2004
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State
election commission upholds Jasper decisions
RIDGELAND: Unless appealed to S.C. Supreme
Court, school board challenger Gallagher is winner
and District 6 gets new election.
By Mark Kreuzwieser
Carolina Morning News
State
Election Commission members on Monday voted
unanimously to uphold Mary Gallagher's victory in
the Nov. 2 election for Jasper County School Board
District 8 seat.
Also, the state commission
ruled 4-1 against School Board District 6 seat
challenger Mike Hubbard's appeal of the local
board's call for a new election between him and
incumbent Andrea Smallwood.
The governor
will be asked to schedule a new election between
Hubbard and Smallwood.
The Jasper Elections
Board had found that a number of votes cast in the
Okatie precinct should not have been counted in
Hubbard's and Smallwood's race. Board members then
called for a new election, but Hubbard objected,
seeking the Okatie votes be thrown out, which
would have made him the winner.
In
certified results, Smallwood beat Hubbard by four
votes.
Earlier Monday, the state
commissioners voted 4-0 to uphold the Jasper
County Board of Elections/Voter Registration's
ruling that Gallagher won the School Board seat
over incumbent Darlene Burroughs by a vote of 173
to 159.
Burroughs had asked for a recount
of the School Board District 8 ballots. The
recount did not change the certified results. She
then protested the election to the Jasper Board of
Elections - acting as the Board of Canvassers -
saying that a number of her supporters were denied
the ability to cast votes for her.
The
board turned down her protest after a hearing.
Burroughs then appealed the decision to the State
Election Commission.
Burroughs and Hubbard
can appeal the State Election Commission's
decisions to the state Supreme Court. Neither
Burroughs nor Hubbard could be reached on
Monday.
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