Posted on 06/13/2012 1:00:05 PM PDT by Coffee... Black... No Sugar
Wednesday, Jun. 13, 2012 Modified Wed, Jun 13, 2012 03:19 PM
A 7th District Democratic runoff may be in the works
By Steve Jones - sjones@thesunnews.com
If S.C. Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian is right, Republicans won’t be the only ones going back to the polls June 26.
Harpootlian alleged that the S.C. State Ethics Commission miscounted the votes in the 7th District Democratic primary and a proper accounting would require a runoff between candidates Gloria Tinubu of Georgetown and Preston Brittain of Myrtle Beach.
Harpootlian said in a Wednesday morning news release that the Election Commission didn’t include the approximately 2,300 votes for S.C. Rep. Ted Vick when it did the math that resulted in Tinubu with 52.44 percent of the Democratic ballots. Had Vick’s votes been added to the state’s tally of 31,217 votes, then Tinubu’s 16,370 votes wouldn’t have constituted a majority.
Hence, the need for a runoff, Harpootlian maintained. Vick withdrew from the race after his arrest in Columbia for driving under the influence, but his name remained on the ballot.
Election Commission spokesman Chris Whitmire did not return phone calls Wednesday morning and afternoon. Tinubu said her campaign will stand by the tally that shows her the winner until something new comes from the Election Commission.
“(Harpootlian’s) math doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. She did not want to elaborate on the statement. Tinubu said she is 13 points ahead of Brittain in polls and feels good about the future, whether it includes a runoff or not.
Her campaign sent out a statement later contending the Election Commission complied with state law. She said that it is required to count votes only for candidates, and that Vick was not a candidate.
“To argue that the South Carolina Election Commission should count the votes of someone who wasn’t a candidate in the race is ridiculous,” the statement said.
Brittain’s campaign issued a statement that backed Harpootlian’s accounting.
Both said state law requires that all votes be counted and that the percentage of votes each candidate gets is calculated on the total vote.
As with Harpootlian, the Brittain campaign statement said that not including votes cast for Vick in the overall tally effectively disenfranchised those who voted for him.
“Counting all the votes for each of the candidates that were on Tuesday’s ballot,” the statement said, “no candidate earned 50 percent plus one vote and thus a runoff election is required.”
Tinubu won the vote in five of the eight counties in the 7th District, including Horry, where she claimed more than 60 percent of the vote.
Brittain won the balloting in Chesterfield, Darlington and Dillon counties..
Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765.
Read more here: http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2012/06/13/2884321/sc-dem-chairman-7th-district-democratic.html#storylink=cpy
South Carolina Democrats are just upset that a black woman won an election, so they want to steal it back from her.
This is the second time in a row SC Democrats have tried to steal the nomination away from a duly-elected Black primary victor (Alvin Greene in the prior Senate race).
Well, as much as I enjoy piling on corrupt SC Democrats, in this case Harpootlian is correct: votes cast for drunk-driving adulterer Ted Vick (who, had he been running in MA instead of SC, would have been elected by acclamation) should certainlybe included in the denominator, and if that reduces Tinubu’s percentage below 50%, then Brittain is entitled to a run-off.
BTW, until she resigned in late 2011 in order to run for Congress in SC-07, Tinubu was a state representative IN GEORGIA (representing black areas in Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton Counties south of Atlanta), but she somehow won 60% of the Democrat primary vote in Horry County, which is (i) over 80% white and (ii) nowhere near the Georgia border (it actually borders NC). That is nothing short of remarkable. There is no doubt in my mind that she’ll win the RAT run-off, but that she’ll get trounced by whichever Republican wins the GOP run-off.
I don’t know do votes for a withdrawn candidate still on the ballot have to be considered valid? I could see that call going either way. I guess it would depend on whether or not Vick’s withdrawal has any legal meaning under state law or not.
I can hardly blame them for wanting to keep her out since she can’t win the GE.
Whatever happens, inter-species animosity tween the white and black rats is always fun to watch.
Of course votes for Vick should count—he was on the ballot, and they voted for him; similarly, votes for Santorum and Gingrich and other former candidates count in the GOP presidential primaries. Because Vick had dropped out, perhaps hd wouldn’t be allowed to win (or, technically, if he won the nomination would be declared vacant and the party could name a replacement), but that’s a different issue altogether.
Two more examples: votes for Mark Foley counted in 2006 after he dropped out but was still on the ballot for the general (although Joe Negron had already been selected as the replacement candidate and would have taken office had Foley won). And in 2000, Mel Carnahan freaking died prior to the election, and votes for him not only counted, but he was declared the winner (which resulted in a vacancy, filled by the governor with Carnahan’s widow).
BTW, AP was counting votes for Vick on primary night, but I guess it was told by someone to give Vick 0 votes. I remember thinking late that night that the black carpetbagger would fall just short of 50%, and being shocked when she was at 52% the next morning, not realized that they had scrubbed the votes for Vick.
On a taxonomical note, fights between black and white rats should be described as intra-species, not inter-species. White and black rats are clearly the same species (Rattus Liberalis), as evidenced by the fact that they can freely produce offspring that itself can reproduce (such as, for example, Barack Obama).
Whatever happens, inter-species animosity tween the white and black rats is always fun to watch.Yup.
:-D That's my mistake, you are right of course.
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