Rep. Nathan Ballentine Calls For Lillian McBride to Be Fired

The first elected official has called on Lillian McBride, the embattled Executive Director of Richland County Elections and Voter Registration, to be fired.

Nathan Ballentine (R-71) released a statement on Friday morning calling for action to be taken against McBride, who he said may not be entirely at fault for the problems on Election Day, but as the person in charge, needs to be held accountable.

NOTE: Later on Friday, Sen. John Courson (R-20) also called for McBride to be removed.

Ballentine also said that he is favor of re-considering early voting legislation and shrinking the size of precincts to avoid a repeat of the long lines that lasted as much as six hours on Election Day.

The Richland Co. Republican also said that legislation needs to be considered that will give more control to local election commission. Ballentine's full statement:

“Like most voters, when it comes to this Election Day mess in Richland County, I have simply heard enough. Thousands of Richland County voters were disenfranchised and no amount of apologies will fix that. While it has not been proven that any type of conspiracy actually took place, many Republicans, Democrats and Independents were, and still are adversely affected by the complete mismanagement of the process before, during, and after the November 6th election. Voters are angry and the only thing everyone agrees on is that this should never happen again.

“After repeated pleas from my constituents and several Richland County residents, I feel it is time to replace the Executive Director of the Richland County Election Commission. If the other members of the Richland Delegation and the County Election Board listen to our citizens, I believe they will come to the same conclusion. The integrity of our fundamental right to vote must be restored and this is an appropriate first step to restore the public's confidence.

"While there may be uncertainty about who can actually make the personnel decisions that will be needed, I'm certain and hopeful changes will be made.

"Personnel changes are simply not enough however, and I believe my colleagues and I should consider legislation that will directly hold local election commissions more accountable. Additionally, I think we need to reduce the size of each precinct in our county. As a state official, I will work on legislation to do just that. I also believe our General Assembly should revisit the early-voting debate. I am eager to support measures that will protect the integrity of each person's ballot being cast prior to and on Election Day.

"I'm hopeful that once the County Election Board returns their investigation report to the delegation, we can assist in determining what procedures must be improved to ensure that enough working machines are in place for our voters.  We certainly will also need to improve the communication between election officials, poll workers and most importantly voters when any problems arise.   As leaders, we must ensure this mess never, ever happens again in our county and in our State.”