FITSNews Exclusive – Marlboro “Malfunctions”

RACE-BASED VOTING IRREGULARITIES REPORTED IN DEMOCRATIC HOUSE ELECTION

FITSNews – June 4, 2008 – Voting machine “malfunctions” in Marlboro County are steering ballots toward incumbent Democratic Representative Doug Jennings and against his primary challenger, Naim Sulahadeen (a.k.a. Floyd Quick), sources tell FITSNews. Additionally, these sources say that affidavits are being filed with state and federal election officials by residents claiming that their votes were incorrectly tabulated for Jennings after they attempted to vote for Sulahadeen.

State Election Commission executive director Marci Andino said her office was notified of the potential irregularities last week and contacted the Marlboro County Election Commission, which said that it tested the machines and assured her that they were working properly.

“This hasn’t been a problem in other counties, but if for some reason those machines aren’t working they need to take them out of circulation,” Andino said.

The issue has raised concerns on multiple levels owing to the fact that Rep. Jennings is a former Chairman of the Marlboro Election Commission and has appointed several of its members. Perhaps more troubling is the fact that the alleged irregularities appear to be more prevalent among African-American voters, prompting interest from the U.S Justice Department given the fact that Jennings is white and Sulahadeen is black.

Jennings’ reelection, which was a foregone conclusion months ago, has been thrown into question thanks to his unflinching support for a 900-acre “mega dump” in Marlboro County. The facility would be the largest of its kind in America, annually bringing 1.5 million tons of solid waste to Marlboro County.

Jennings is said to have personally brought representatives of the landfill company to the State Department of Health and Environmental Control, using his position to encourage them to start the permitting process.

“Marlboro County needs the money,” Jennings has repeatedly said in supporting the project.

Local residents have been extremely vocal in their opposition, however, which has formed the nucleus of Sulahadeen’s support.

Belvin Sweatt, one of the leaders of the anti-landfill movement, says he personally witnessed the machines malfunctioning when he took an elderly woman to the polls to help her cast her vote.

“When she pushed the review button, every choice of hers came up correctly except one – the machine said she voted for Jennings when she specifically voted for his opponent,” Sweatt said.

Sweatt said he would be willing to testify to what he saw, and added that he had heard numerous other reports of the machines showing votes for Jennings that were in fact cast for his opponent.

In the event the voting irregularities are confirmed, the state is powerless to impose any remedy on the local election commission.

“We don’t have any oversight over them,” Election Commission director Andino told FITSNews. “We create their ballots for them, but there’s no state oversight.”

Enter the U.S. Justice Department, which is tasked with investigating complaints of voter disenfranchisement, or in this case, allegations of votes being flat out reversed.

“We would be very interested in reviewing the affidavits,” a source at the Justice Department told us this afternoon.

Jennings told FITSNews in late 2007 that he was not going to seek reelection after a secretive whispering campaign was initiated against him last year.

Specifically, anonymous faxes and e-mails were sent to state legislators and select members of the media alleging that Jennings was involved in a homosexual affair with a WIS TV State House reporter.

At the time, several sources told us that former gubernatorial communications director Chris Drummond was behind the whispering campaign against Jennings, charges which Drummond has emphatically denied.

Law enforcement officials attempted on several occasions to trace the origin of the e-mails, but were unsuccessful.

“Whoever did it knew how to hide their tracks,” said one of the officials who investigated the e-mails.

Developing …

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