Election challenge rejected

Lancaster County hopeful wanted last week's primary results tossed

CHERAINE STANFORD

Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Carroll Huffman lost his bid Thursday to have the results of last week's Lancaster County Council District 5 primary thrown out.

Huffman lost the primary by 15 votes (612-597) to incumbent Rudy Carter and filed a formal letter of protest with Lancaster Democrats Monday charging that voting was mishandled.

After a hearing on the matter, the Lancaster County Democrats' executive committee voted Thursday afternoon to deny Huffman's protest.

Huffman, who declined to comment after the hearing, can still appeal to the S.C. Democratic party.

During the nearly four-hour-long session Thursday, lawyers representing Huffman and Carter spoke about the handling of the election.

Mark White, who represented Huffman, argued that there were irregularities in election procedures that made the results doubtful. Among the problems, at least 43 voters who live in District 5 were given the wrong ballots during the primary and were not able to vote on the Carter-Huffman contest.

David Blackwell, who represented Carter, argued there was no indication that any irregularities in the voting would have yielded a different outcome. Carter wasn't at the hearing.

County elections officers admitted there were people listed on voter rolls in the wrong districts but said people could have pointed out problems with their ballots the day of the election and had them fixed then.

Gilbert Small Jr., Lancaster County's Democratic Party chairman, said although there were mistakes during the primary, there wasn't enough reason to have a new election.

Small urged voters to check their voter registration cards and verify information with the voter registration office. He said the responsibility lies with the voters.

"I don't think there's a perfect election out there, period," Small said.