Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories

Alvin Greene's S.C. Primary Win: Elections Board Declines to Investigate

1 year ago
  0 Comments Say Something  »
Text Size
Alvin Greene's controversial -- and curious -- victory in last week's Senate primary in South Carolina will not be investigated by the state's election commission.

Chris Whitmire, a spokesman for the commission, said it sees "no reason to initiate an investigation into our voting system," according to the Hill. "We have full confidence in the reliability and accuracy of the state's voting system and we have nothing to indicate there was any voting-system failure on June 8. The system has performed accurately and consistently."

Greene is a jobless veteran who won 58 percent of the vote despite being a virtual unknown. He spent almost no money on his campaign and made few, if any, appearances. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) has said there were "real shenanigans going on" in the primary, adding, "I don't know if [Greene] was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant." Clyburn is particularly suspicious that Greene could come up with the $10,400 needed to register for the race despite being unemployed.

A spokesman for Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, Greene's opponent in the general election, has called Clyburn's charge "ridiculous."

Vic Rawl, a former judge and four-term state legislator who lost the nomination to Greene, is expected to meet with the state Democratic Party's executive committee Thursday to call for a new election based on voting machine "irregularities," the Hill also reported.

Further thickening the plot in this bizarre story is that Greene faces a felony charge for allegedly showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student. Court records show that Greene, 32, was arrested in November. He posted bond after his arrest and has yet to enter a plea or be indicted, the AP reported. The charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

Our New Approach to Comments

In an effort to encourage the same level of civil dialogue among Politics Daily’s readers that we expect of our writers – a “civilogue,” to use the term coined by PD’s Jeffrey Weiss – we are requiring commenters to use their AOL or AIM screen names to submit a comment, and we are reading all comments before publishing them. Personal attacks (on writers, other readers, Nancy Pelosi, George W. Bush, or anyone at all) and comments that are not productive additions to the conversation will not be published, period, to make room for a discussion among those with ideas to kick around. Please read our Help and Feedback section for more info.

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

8 Comments

Filter by:
Rob & Kathy

Apparently they would rather elect Greene than the incumbent Dem! You don't think the Dems are in trouble this November?...

June 22 2010 at 11:04 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
CONWAYS

From the "Truth is Hard to Face" Department:

The Real Meaning of Greene's win? "Anyone but the Incumbent Demo!"

June 17 2010 at 12:04 PM Report abuse +5 rate up rate down Reply
wolfehyder

The Democratics have their Black Canidate!

Where was the Democratic party when Greene paid the $10,440.oo to run. Jim Clyburn seems to hate the folks he should be presenting. If his district hadn't been gerrymander 12 years ago he would still be trying to get elected to some office. So if that was fair for him, then Greene run. It's all along the same lines, being that the Black Democratics of this state knew from the name Greene, ending with a e, was 99.9 chance of being a Black man.

June 17 2010 at 11:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
leslie

I believe Clyburn should be investigated for inciting "real shenanigans going on" telling lies and can't prove on national television.He can't stand the people of South Carolina has had enough with the status quo so they wandted ChANGE so they made it happen. Accept it, live it, and move on to investigating the real problem
CLYBURN.

June 17 2010 at 10:43 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to leslie's comment
Jorli

Then all politicians would be investiagted, since they all make similar remarks.

June 17 2010 at 3:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
thirdpartyvote

do you realize that the same malfunctions that were in the voting equipment during the primaries will favor Greene in the general. We will be having this same discussion in November. "Greene (sexual predator) defeats DeMint."

June 17 2010 at 10:04 AM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
thirdpartyvote

Great, now we can elect a predator to the Senate. Can you imagine what this young woman had to do. The guy was going to rape her. She had to move dorms, go through all this stress and police identification, all while she was trying to major in Chemistry. She ought to find out whey USC let him into an area restricted to students and faculty, as well.

June 17 2010 at 9:59 AM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
Kenneth

Alvin Greene, the man from no where, has pulled off the political upset of the decade. He has the entire Democratic party talking to themselves.
They are all trying to figure out how this unknown was able to get 59% of the vote during the primary.
The so called favorite should be taking a long hard look in the mirror as to why an unknown kicked his butt. It sure looks like the people did not want him o the ticket come November.

June 17 2010 at 9:54 AM Report abuse +6 rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Kenneth's comment
gjgruber

Neither Vic Rawl or Alvin Greene did much to promote themselves in their district. The voters did not know either of them. Alvin Greene had no funding to market himself and Vic Rawl was thinking he was a sure win and was saving his funding for the November Ballot. Too bad Vic, wrong choice.

A Republican in SC and loving it.

June 17 2010 at 12:43 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply

Follow Politics Daily

  • Comics
robert-and-donna-trussell
CHAOS THEORY
Featuring political comics by Robert and Donna TrussellMore>>
  • Woman UP Video
politics daily videos
Weekly Videos
Woman Up, Politics Daily's Online Sunday ShowMore»
politics daily videos
TV Appearances
Showcasing appearances by Politics Daily staff and contributors.More>>

News From Our Partners