Richland Council Denies Budget Increase for Elections Commission

Richland County Election Commission's budget request for an increase to almost $1.8 million was denied Thursday — for now — by county council during second reading of the fiscal year 2013-2014 budget.

The department requested almost $600,000 in additional funds over its budget of $1.2 million.

The increase included $119,000 for voting machines and related equipment and $455,000 was for operational funding, which included hiring additional part-time staff, county administrator Tony McDonald said. 

McDonald recommended council approve the funds for voting machines and earmark the $455,000 amount in fund balance to be available for the new elections director should the director decide it's needed. 

Councilman Seth Rose made a motion to stick to the $1.2 million budget since the department's budget was increased by $400,000 last year by Richland legislators.

The budget request divided council, with some saying to approve McDonald's recommendation and others agreeing with Rose.

Councilman Norman Jackson said council should approve the request because he didn't want the county to be blamed for not providing any necessary machines and personnel for November elections.

“If they need it, lets give it to them," Jackson said.

Chairman Kelvin Washington agreed with Jackson, saying the department was trying to fix what happened with the Nov. 6 election, where voters waited in long lines for hours and precincts had broken or an insufficient number of voting machines. 

“We’re sitting here getting ready to hogtie the election commission," Washington said. "The election commission is an operation to get us elected."

“For my colleagues to sit here and browbeat this department over and over again is ridiculous to me...”

Councilman Paul Livingston attempted to get council to accept McDonald's recommendation, but six of the 11 council members voted against it.

Those members not in favor of Livingston's motion were Rose, Bill Malinowski, Greg Pearce, Joyce Dickerson, Torrey Rush and Damon Jeter.

Council voted again, approving Rose's motion to fund at $1.2 million, but there was some confusion on what that amount would cover.

Washington said, "Everything that happened with that election (Nov. 6, 2012), they’re trying to remedy and we just stifled that."

Dickerson responded yelling, "That's not true." She suggested the council review the vote but no actions was taken.

Final vote on the budget is scheduled for June 19.