The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is not looking into fraud allegations stemming from the town鈥檚 November election for mayor and two council seats, though the town's attorney on Monday, Aug. 19, claimed an investigation was underway.
Since November, controversy has swirled around potential voter fraud in the town, and the town鈥檚 election commission is taking no steps to resolve the disputed election because of the town鈥檚 claim.
Town attorney Dwayne Green said Monday that SLED had been asked to investigate whether there were improper votes cast in the November election, and that SLED had begun an investigation.
鈥淕enerally, [the election commission] is waiting on two bits of information. There鈥檚 a SLED investigation as to whether or not illegal voters or voters that voted illegally voted and whether or not those illegal votes would have changed the outcome,鈥 Green told MyHorry黑料社入口 after the meeting. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 an independent determination that needs to be made and certainly to find out whether those votes were in fact illegal, there鈥檚聽a SLED investigation going on to determine that as well.鈥
SLED confirmed Tuesday, Aug. 20, that there was no investigation into the town ongoing.
鈥淪LED does not have an investigation,鈥 SLED Director of Public Information Ren茅e Wunderlich wrote in an email.
The saga surrounding the election includes the disbanding and reshaping of the election commission, lawsuits, and allegations of voter fraud. The town鈥檚 election commission met Monday, Aug. 19, for the first time since April and discussed the contested election and next steps.
鈥淲e鈥檝e not met in a number of months, and we just want to bring the commissioners up to speed in addition to attorney Green as well as our interim town manager Mr. [Orton] Bellamy. So this meeting is for information,鈥 said chairman Kenneth McIver at the beginning of the meeting.
Allegations have been made regarding voters meeting residency requirements to legally vote in the election, and the election commission, after being disbanded and reorganized with new members, declared the results for mayor invalid and that 13 votes were cast fraudulently due to residency concerns.
Mayoral candidate John David said he wants the election to be settled and called the election commission鈥檚 informational meeting on Monday a sham. The election commission has not set a date to redo the election for mayor, and David claims the town is trying to prolong the issue for as long as they can to stay in power.
鈥淭he attorney is hired by the three council folks who caused all this problem, and the attorney and the town manager, it鈥檚 incumbent of them to stay in the good graces of those three, so they will cherry pick and find findings that will work to keep no election from being closed out in Atlantic Beach,鈥 David said.
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