In August of 2022, Attorney Lauren Martel, on behalf of plaintiffs SC Safe Elections group and Michael Funderburk, filed a lawsuit against the SC State Election Commission and the election boards of 8 SC counties: Aiken, Beaufort, Charleston, Dorchester, Greenville, Lexington, Spartanburg, and York.
In this lawsuit, SC Safe Elections requested information pertaining to Cast Vote Records from both the 2020 general election and the 2022 primaries and runoff under the state FOIA law. On August 31st, the plaintiffs were granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Preliminary Injunction. This orders the restraining of each Defendant from destroying or allowing the destruction of the Cast Vote Records (CVR) of the 2020 general election and the 2022 primaries and runoff.
All defendants involved claim that there is personal information included on these Cast Vote Records. They base this claim off of the SC Attorney General Opinion that was written on September 28, 2020, a few short months before the 2020 election. This Attorney General Opinion was requested by the former Director of the SEC Marci Andino who resigned shortly after the opinion was published. Before this request, Cast Vote Records have always been available to FOIA as it is in 27 other states.
To learn more about the details of this case and to read the Summons, Complaint, and the granted Temporary Restraining Order, click here.
On January 18th, 2023, Plaintiffs filed three expert affidavits from Dr. Walter Daugherity, Donnie Scroggins, and Laura Scharr. These affidavits clearly explain how CVRs work, how they are supposed to be maintained, what they consist of, and more importantly: what they do not contain. I highly recommend reading these affidavits, especially Dr. Daugherity’s expert opinion. See all three affidavits below.
The hearing for this case is scheduled for Valentine’s Day, Febuary 14th at 9:30am over WebEx. Show the concerned citizens of South Carolina some love by donating to the lawsuit and follow this link to watch the hearing.
To fully understand the details of this case and what is at stake, VP Alaina Moore sat down with SC Safe Elections Leader Laura Scharr in an interview.
Interview With Laura Scharr
