Persuasive evidence proves South Carolina citizens should have access to Cast Vote Records (CVRs) but Judge Coble punts
Our evidence and expert testimony was ignored. SC doesn't want you to see how your vote was counted
In August of 2022, the South Carolina Safe Elections group and Michael Funderburk (plaintiffs) filed a lawsuit against the SC Election Commission (SEC) and 8 county Boards of Elections in SC (Aiken, Beaufort, Charleston, Dorchester, Greenville, Lexington, Spartanburg, and York) as well as a Temporary Restraining Order (which was granted) to preserve all 2020 election data.
The defendants had denied Freedom of information Act (FOIA) requests for an important audit report called a Cast Vote Record (CVR). Prior to September 2020, our election offices provided these reports and they were even used to for analysis in national whitepapers. But in August of 2020, just prior to the 2020 election, the then executive director of our state election commission, Marci Andino, decided that due to the fact that the new machines produce ballot images, these reports should not be provided. Not to mention the fact that she changed the definition of a cast vote record in her request to include not only the actual CVR report but also the ballot image and the physical ballot. She asked Alan Wilson’s SC Attorney General’s (AG’s) office to provide an “opinion letter” responding to the facts she presented.
The AG’s office issued a letter that agreed with her, as they could only make their determination on the facts provided by her. This was despite the fact that 28 other states and the District of Columbia provide Cast Vote Records to their citizens. Some counties even provide them online so that they can be conveniently downloaded for review and analysis. Curiously, she also decided at that time to ask for guidance from the AG’s office on preventing citizens from accessing security reports and the AG’s office also complied with that request. Reminder– many states allow public access to all of the aforementioned reports!
Why the sudden change and why just prior to the 2020 election? Also, why would the supposedly conservative state of South Carolina withhold valuable information from citizens who desire clarity and transparency in their elections?
https://www.scsafeelections.org/updates/persuasive-evidence-proves-south-carolina-citizens-should-have-access-to-cast-vote-records-cvrs-but-judge-punts/
We appreciate all of you who value election transparency and for your kind support and contributions. We continue the fight for your elections.
Best,
The SC Safe Elections team
This is a sad commentary on on our corrupt legal system. Judge Cobble should be impeached for this egregious decision. Hard to believe there is an honest politician in the state.
We are sharing this as we point out Alan Wilson will probably be running for Governor in 2 years.