Rawl files primary protest

U.S. Senate candidate Vic Rawl on Monday filed a formal protest with the state Democratic Party over "strange circumstances" surrounding his stunning June 8 primary loss to a political novice.

Rawl said ongoing analysis and anecdotal evidence point to irregularities that warrant "a full and unblinking investigation" of the primary that handed the nomination to newcomer Alvin Greene. The unemployed veteran from Manning bested Rawl, a former judge and state lawmaker from Charleston, with nearly 60 percent of the vote.

Among other things, Rawl pointed to statistical anomalies in voting results as well as "extremely unusual" stories from frustrated voters who saw Greene's name pop up on voting machine screens when they pressed Rawl's name.

"There is a cloud over Tuesday's election," Rawl said, surrounded by supporters and fellow members of

Charleston County Council, in the Council chambers. "There is a cloud over South Carolina that affects all of our people, Democrats, Republicans, white and African-American alike. At this point, the people of our state do not have the basic confidence that their vote will be counted."

Reached at his home later in the day, Greene, 32, questioned Rawl's motives for the protest and whether the action violated loyalty oaths candidates were required to take. Party officials said it did not.

"I got 60 percent of the vote. I got 60 percent of the vote," Greene said. "I think he's just trying to get attention at this point. That's all I have to say about it."

Greene then hung up the phone.

Rawl said his only motive is "protecting the sanctity" of the election process, and he hasn't decided if he will run for the seat again if a new election is ordered. Rawl said he will present his team's full evidence at a meeting of the state party's 92-member executive committee Thursday in Columbia. If the panel denies his protest, he still could appeal to the state Supreme Court, he said.

S.C. Democratic Chairwoman Carol Fowler said the committee takes its work very seriously, but she could not recall a time when the panel overturned the results of a statewide race.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Phil Leventis, a Sumter County Democrat, called on state election officials to impound all voting machines used during the primary until a full accounting of the vote totals can be conducted.

Chris Whitmire, public information officer for the election commission, said the state had no widespread reports of voting problems on June 8, and it is highly unlikely the machines will be impounded with counties preparing for runoff elections next week. "We have no plans to do that," he said.

Greene's win has touched off a storm of controversy in the Democratic Party, and he has become an object of fascination for the national media.

While Rawl logged 17,000 miles on his car crisscrossing the state and issued 300,000 automated phone calls, Greene emerged out of nowhere, raised no campaign funds and was unknown to Democratic officials even in his hometown. No one expected him to hand Rawl such a drubbing, leading some party officials to question whether Greene was a "plant" thrown in the race as a spoiler.

"I know a Democratic pattern. I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place," U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

The day after Greene's primary win, the S.C. Democratic Party called on him to withdraw as the nominee-elect after it was reported that he faces a felony obscenity charge. That count stems from his November arrest for allegedly showing pornography to an 18-year-old University of South Carolina student in a computer lab at the school. Greene won't talk about the charge, but he has been plenty vocal about his intent to stay in the race.

Rawl said he knew nothing about Greene going into the primary and hasn't spoken to him since. "I didn't know who he was," he said. "I was running against a ghost."

Still, Rawl said his protest is about potential problems with the way the primary went down, not about Greene himself. Rawl's campaign said several experts found statistical oddities in the voting results statewide. He pointed to Lancaster County as one example. Rawl won the absentee vote by an 80-percent margin, but lost the general election by 17 percent, he said.

Rawl said voters and poll workers described problems with the voting machines, including one voter in the Republican primary who had the Democratic Senate race appear on her ballot.

He said there is a "well-documented unreliability and unverifiability of the voting machines used in South Carolina." He said the machines were purchased second-hand from Louisiana after that state outlawed them.

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Whitmire disagreed, saying the state bought its 12,000 machines new in 2004 from a Nebraska company and that they have performed to expectation in thousands of elections since that time. Though human errors and calibration issues do occur, there were no complaints of voting-machine problems such as Rawl is describing, he said.

Among Democrats, protests also have been lodged in the House District 121 race in Beaufort and Colleton counties and in a Lee County Council race, Whitmire said. Republicans filed no protests, he said.

Rawl said he thinks something went wrong, though he can't say whether it was by accident or intention. "I sat on the bench for 12 years and I have a pretty good nose," he said. "This does not smell right."

Reach Glenn Smith at 937-5556 or gsmith@postandcourier.com.