Richland County Vote Recount Stopped

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — It’s a story that seems to be changing by the hour. Around 3:00 o’clock this afternoon a vote recount, stemming from a lawsuit filed by the stateDemocratic party, started. The recount was then stopped just over an hour later after the state Supreme Court upheld a filing by the state Republican party. ABC Columbia spoke with the South Carolina Republican Party Executive Director, Matt Moore earlier this afternoon and he says the South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered the recount to be stopped until next Tuesday’s hearing when both sides are due in court. Also today, ABC Columbia caught up with Richland County Election Commission Chairperson, Liz Crum to talk about the issues facing the county.” “It’s not acceptable to have to wait the length of time we did here, “says Crum. After an election day mishap of what some call epic proportions, Richland County is trying to dig themselves out of a mess. On Election Day, thousands of voters were left standing in line for more than 3 hours, because there weren’t enough voting machines. ABC Columbia asked officials why this happened. “We don’t know the answer to that, but we will find that out as a commission and we will let everybody know,” says Crum. The machine mishap is just part of what reportedly landed the county in the middle of a lawsuit filed by the Democratic party after the final results of House District 75 revealed a different winner than previously announced. “We wanted to make sure the voters of Richland County’s voices were heard,” says Amanda Loveday, Executive Director of the SCDP. “The Democrats filing this lawsuit in this one specific race was wrong and against the law. We have had enough violations of law already,” says Matt Moore, Executive Director of the SCGOP. Because of reports that state statutes were broken we asked if personnel changes arecoming. “I think we have a good staff, but until we know what went wrong and the basis of that, we can’t make a judgement,” says Crum. The Richland County Election Commission and both the Democratic and Republican parties will all appear in court next Tuesday for a hearing on this issue. ABC Columbia will have a crew in the courtroom, we will bring you more as it becomes available.