Attorney Lauren Martel, on behalf of plaintiffs SC Safe Elections group and Michael Funderburk, has 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.
SC Safe Elections has requested information pertaining to Cast Vote Records from both the 2020 general election and the 2022 primaries and runoff under the state FOIA law. This information has been denied, with the SEC and counties citing an Attorney General opinion based on faulty information from September 2020 requested by former SEC Director Marci Andino. Most recently, in August 2022, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote an opinion in direct contradiction to the SC AG’s opinion on Cast Vote Records, stating that these records are public information, as they contain no privately identifiable information.
Article II Section 1 of the South Carolina Constitution states that “[a]ll elections by the people shall be by secret ballot, but the ballots shall not be counted in secret.”
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. A hearing will be scheduled shortly.
To continue this case, SC Safe Elections is in need of donations in order to preserve these election records to be analyzed. To donate, visit https://www.givesendgo.com/SCFOIA
I requested the CVR from Newberry, Richmond & Lexington. Newberry & Lexington both denied the request. Richmond never responded. I know there were problems in Lexington because a women at a meeting told us her daughter (college student) was told she had already voted. She found her friends in her neighborhood had the same problem.
Was this during the 2022 Primaries? I’ve heard of similar issues with people going to vote in person and being told they’d voted absentee when they hadn’t.