SCEC Rules Gloria Bromell Tinubu Winner
By Paul Gable
For the time being, Gloria Bromell Tinubu is the winner of the Democratic primary election for the nomination for the new 7th Congressional District.
The S.C. Election Commission voted 3-2 Friday to not count the approximately 2,300 votes cast for withdrawn candidate Ted Vick in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election for the new 7th Congressional District.
By not counting the Vick votes, Gloria Bromell Tinubu wins the nomination because she garnered nearly 53 percent of the votes counted to 39 percent for second place Preston Brittain.
But, in this year of one election lawsuit after another, the decision will now go to court.
Horry County judge Larry Hyman issued a restraining order against the Election Commission Thursday to not calibrate voting machines for a runoff election until a June 21st court hearing on a lawsuit filed by the Brittain camp Wednesday.
It is expected that the S.C. Supreme Court will be asked Monday to take original jurisdiction in the lawsuit.
There is considerable precedent in federal elections counting votes for candidates no longer in the race. The S.C. presidential primary this year counted the votes for Michelle Bachmann even though she had withdrawn from the contest prior to the voting. This was allowed by the same S.C. Election Commission that refused to count the Vick votes.
In 2000, John Ashcroft lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate in the November general election even though his opponent had died in a plane crash several weeks before the voting.
Tinubu is apparently not the choice of the Democratic hierarchy in South Carolina, witnessed by the number of high profile Democrats who endorsed Brittain. She may, however, be the choice of the Republicans who, according to sources, believe she will be the easier candidate to defeat in the general election.
So goes politics in South Carolina today.
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