Preliminary Report On Richland Election Fiasco Due Next Week

The attorney retained by the Richland County Election Commission to investigate the cause for the long lines on Election Day said he plans on having an initial report ready on the fiasco next week.

Steve Hamm said he will give his preliminary findings to the Richland County Legislation prior to its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, Dec. 6.

Hamm spoke after a public meeting of the Commission on Thursday afternoon. The highlight of the meeting was a decision by the Commission to accept the ruling by Attorney General Alan Wilson to have the power to hire and fire the Executive Director, Lillian McBride.

McBride has received the brunt of the public criticism for the problems on Election Day. The Commission did not comment on her job status at the meeting.

Hamm said he did not plan to include a recommendation to the Commission about what action, if any, should be taken against McBride. He did say, that if the Commission asked for his opinion, he would give it.

But Hamm stressed that his primary goal is to climb the mountain of data that exists on the election. “We’re in a mode where people want to know that something is being done. Restoring public confidence is essential,” Hamm said.

“We want a report where the facts are clear. People can draw their own conclusions from the facts, but we have to get the facts correct and I take that very seriously.”

Hamm said he has spoken to USC computer science professor Duncan Buell, who issued this report on the election last week. He has also spoken to every staff member in the Elections and Voter Registration Department and noted that McBride has complied with every request he has made thus far.

McBride declined comment to the media after Thursday’s meeting. A group has formed a petition drive calling for her resignation. It’s led by Max Blachman, a former staffer for Democrat Joe McCulloch, who lost a close race for House District 75. Blachman, in calling for McBride to step down, said. “Ms. McBride is the director and is ultimately accountable for the botched election that disenfranchised hundreds if not thousands of voters and forced thousands more to wait in egregiously long lines. She deserves credit for apologizing to the public, but apologies are cheap when what voters deserve is contrition, accountability, and absolute confidence in their civil servants."

McCulloch is not involved in the petition effort.

During her testimony on Monday before the legislative delegation, McBride said that a spreadsheet error was why there were not enough machines at polling places. Hamm said finding out who wrote the incorrect numbers is among his top priorities.

But Hamm said he also plans to find out why there were so many malfunctions with the machines. He indicated that other counties had problems with the batteries on the voting machines, though not to the degree of Richland County.

A person familiar with the voting machines told Patch that another of the main issues with the voting machines was defective touch screens. Hamm acknowledged this problem and said it’s tied to the age of the machines. He floated the possibility that the manner in which the machines were stored may have contributed to their defects. He said he plans on finding out if something at the warehouse caused the temperature to fluctuate, which could negatively affect the touch screens.

Hamm said he also plans on reviewing the recordkeeping by the Elections office and thus far, “I’m satisfied that preparations took place in June and July for this election.”

A source told Patch that there was a marked difference between the attention to detail of McBride and that of her predecessor, Mike Cinnamon.

“I am aware of that and I am looking into it,” Hamm said, but did not elaborate.

Hamm said he would be in favor of more countywide public forums on the Election. “We live in a society where people want to be heard,” he said.

The Chair of Legislative Delegation Sen. Darrell Jackson said he has no plans to hold more hearings, but Reps. Mia Butler Garrick and Nathan Ballentine have advocated for them.

Hamm also suggested that early voting might have alleviated the lines on Election Day. “Our voting system is not built to operate at maximum capacity,” he said, and cited Buell’s report, which calculated that voters would have had to cast ballots in three minutes for the election to have come off on schedule.

Several members of the Legislative Delegation called for the state legislature to consider early voting when it reconvenes in January.

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