By Paul Gable
It looks like the Town of Atlantic Beach is trying to outdo itself in the upcoming municipal elections for town council.
The best show in town, with a 2010 listed population of 334 and maybe 100 or so registered voters, is election follies.
The S.C. Supreme Court anyone who has been resident in Horry County for a few years knows Atlantic Beach elections occur in the theater of the absurd. Election challenges on ridiculous premises routinely make it all the way to the Supreme Court before they are settled.
This year the show will be better than ever. This year Atlantic Beach has two elections with two different municipal election commissions, one presiding over each.
Well, not really.
One election commission was appointed by town council in February but was tossed out a few months later when it scheduled a special election for July 30th. The special election was scheduled to fill the seat vacated by Josephine Isom. Isom refused to be sworn into office after an earlier disputed election.
Council voted to throw Isom out of office, the one she never assumed, in August 2012 and a special election was not scheduled by council, so the election commission scheduled its own.
Council then voted to throw out the election commission and appoint a new one.
So, the first election commission (the one no longer in office) has again scheduled an election – this time for town council on November 5th.
Council set the date for the town election as November 12th and the new election commission will oversee it.
Obviously, the ousted election commission has little chance of successfully pleading its case and its November 5th election won’t count.
But, this is Atlantic Beach. Next it will have two town councils.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Speak Up…