State Democratic party to hear Willis’ protest

By Charles Tomlinson
Lake City News & Post Editor
Published: June 16, 2008

FLORENCE — The state Democratic party will hear Florence Mayor Frank Willis’ protest of last week’s Democratic primary, in which challenger Stephen J. Wukela leads the incumbent by one vote.

“One vote’s just not enough for us to walk away and say everything’s OK,” Willis said.

The protest follows Monday’s four-hour recount, which showed Wukela with 1,469 votes to Willis’ 1,468 — the same results that followed Thursday’s review of challenged ballots.

The winner of the primary will be Florence’s next mayor because no Republican candidates filed to run for the office.

The matter will ascend to the state level because the city Democratic party decided it would be best for the state party to hear the issue, city Democratic party chairwoman Dr. Ruth Smith said.

The state Democratic party is expecting to receive an amended version of Willis’ protest that was submitted Friday to the state and city parties, S.C. Democratic Party Executive Director Joe Werner said.

State Democratic officials are waiting to receive a letter from the city party asking them to hold the hearing, Werner said.

Within five days after the protest is filed, a public hearing in Columbia will be held by the S.C. Democratic Party’s Board of State Canvassers of Municipal Primaries, Werner said. That board consists of six state party executive committee members, one from each congressional district.

Wukela said Willis’ protest contains a motion for the state party to handle the matter on the grounds that the city party is incompetent, which he said he disagrees with.

Willis said competence isn’t the issue.

“Where’s the incompetence? There’s no body there, there’s no mechanism, there’s no group” to hear the protest at the city level, Willis said.

Wukela said he doesn’t plan to object to the motion.

“I think it’s in everybody’s interest for this thing to be resolved quickly,” he said.

Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Commission Chairman James Tanner said Monday that county elections officials and poll workers have been “just dedicated to the task.”

“This was a first-time venture for them ... and they did an outstanding job,” he said. “And it was almost error-free.”

Last week’s election was the first time city primaries have been held along with federal, state and county primaries.

City residents cast two ballots in the election — one for the city election and another for federal, state and county contests. They could vote Republican in one primary and Democratic in the other, if they wished.

Willis’ protest alleges that the Florence County Election Commission “admittedly counted an illegal vote” for Wukela in certified vote totals.

It also states that some city residents weren’t allowed to vote in the mayoral race while some unqualified voters cast ballots in the primary.

The protest charges that poll workers told many “split-ballot” voters that they couldn’t vote in the Democratic mayoral primary if they voted Republican in the other contests.

It also states that poll workers might have used electoral maps that hadn’t been updated to reflect homes that have been annexed into the city.

Willis also said he is filing a petition for the county elections commission to throw out the ballot that placed Wukela ahead by one vote when challenged ballots were counted last week.

“It was certainly legal, was counted, and should be counted,” Wukela said Monday.

Willis said he doesn’t think anyone intended to do anything illegal during the election.

“There were a lot of mistakes made in this election, the vast majority of them simply (because of) confusion,” he said.

The commission had voted to accept a voter’s failsafe ballot for the U.S. Senate primary. A voter can vote such a ballot for federal, statewide, and countywide offices if he or she moves to a different precinct within the same county.

But the commission also counted a city ballot along with the failsafe ballot and then certified the results.