Florence County elections commission removes Young, appoints interim director

By Charles Tomlinson
Morning News Reporter
Published: July 25, 2008

Florence County’s acting elections director is serving as interim director following the dismissal of Mike Young, who in May was suspended without pay.

The Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Commission voted unanimously July 10 to discontinue Young’s services, Steve Love said.
Young, 54, has pleaded not guilty to a count of embezzling more than $40,000 in disability benefits from the Federal Railroad Retirement Board.
Commission Chairman James Tanner couldn’t be reached for comment on Young’s removal. Tanner said in May that he couldn’t comment on the “highly personal” matters that led to the decision to suspend Young.

Love said he agreed to serve as interim director under the condition that Stephen Grantham would be hired as a senior equipment technician.

Love, who had been programming voting machines as a technician for the elections commission, said he didn’t want the sole responsibility of equipment maintenance while working as interim director.

Love also said he told the commission at this month’s meeting that Young had visited the voter registration and elections offices July 8 to gather some personal belongings and return a county-issued cell phone.

Young was indicted April 23, at a point less than two months before the June 10 Democratic and Republican primaries.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Young collected retirement benefits based on claims that he had been unable to earn income from February 2006 to August 2007, when he served as assistant and then interim county elections director.

“I think that I complied with the reporting requirements, but apparently we have a difference of opinion,” Young told the Morning News in late April.

Young spent 23 years working for the railroad — including Southern Railroad in Columbia and Amtrak in Florence — and became general chairman of the Amtrak clerks union before taking early retirement in 1996, he said in an interview last year.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office also stated that Young ran a voting machine consulting business during the time he claimed the benefits. Young worked as interim elections director through a contract with his consulting firm, Southern Terminal LLC.

Young first served as a Florence County poll worker in 1985 and became a precinct clerk in 1988. He worked as the county’s election equipment technician from 2001 to 2006.

If found guilty of the federal charge, Young could receive a penalty of as much as $250,000 and 10 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s Office of the Inspector General.