State Democratic Party to hear Willis’ protest

The S.C. Democratic Party has confirmed it will hold a hearing Saturday regarding Florence Mayor Frank Willis’ protest of last week’s primary.

The hearing will take place at 2 p.m. at the state party’s office in Columbia, state party Executive Director Joe Werner said.

The party expects its Board of State Canvassers of Municipal Primaries to make a decision the day of the hearing, Werner said.

The board consists of six state party executive committee members, one from each congressional district.

Willis, who trails Stephen J. Wukela by one vote, said his attorneys served the protest about midday Wednesday. He had two days to protest following a Monday recount that lasted four hours.

The recount showed Wukela with 1,469 votes to Willis’ 1,468 — the same results that followed the June 12 review of challenged ballots.

The winner of the primary likely will be Florence’s next mayor because no Republican candidates filed to run for the office.

Willis’ attorneys filed the original version of the protest with the Florence Municipal Democratic Party as well as the state party. The city party, however, deferred to the state party to hold a hearing on the protest.

Last week’s election was the first time city primaries have been held along with federal, state and county primaries.

Willis’ protest alleges the Florence County Election Commission “admittedly counted an illegal vote” for Wukela in certified vote totals.

It also states that some city residents weren’t allowed to vote in the mayoral race while some out-of-city voters cast ballots in the city’s primary.

The protest charges that poll workers told many “split-ballot” voters they couldn’t vote in the Democratic mayoral primary if they voted Republican in the other contests.

City residents cast two ballots in the election — one for the city election and another for federal, state and county contests. They could vote Republican in one primary and Democratic in the other, if they wished.

Willis’ protest also states that poll workers might have used electoral maps that hadn’t been updated to reflect homes that have been annexed into the city.

Willis also said he is filing a petition for the county elections commission to throw out the ballot that placed Wukela ahead by one vote when challenged ballots were counted last week.