In South Carolina, Alvin Greene Wins -- Again -- Without Showing Up

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- It was going to be tough for any South Carolina Democrat to defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint in November. Now that state Democratic Party officials have upheld the surprising June 8 primary win of Alvin Greene -- a 32-year-old unemployed veteran facing a felony obscenity charge -- "long shot" doesn't begin to describe his or the party's chances in this race.

A Thursday meeting of the party's executive committee considered a protest by Vic Rawl of Charleston, the former state legislator and judge whom Greene defeated with 60 percent of the vote. The committee could have ordered a new primary election or overturned the result. Greene was a no-show, much as he was on the campaign trail, and he didn't send anyone to speak for him. State party chair Carol Fowler said she had sent three representatives to hand-carry a copy of the protest -- "he's difficult to reach by phone" -- and to tell Greene he was not only welcome but also encouraged to come.

By the end of a long proceeding and deliberation that stretched from afternoon through the evening, it didn't matter. Greene's certified candidacy will stand. The vote was 38½ to 7½ (some committee members get half-votes, depending on the size of their county).

Rawl's protest was based on the grounds that the electronic voting machines used in the primary were "susceptible to accidental or intentional modification, alteration or tampering"; because of that and the lack of a paper trail, the results could not be verified. His attorney, Truett Nettles, presented several voters who explained how they did battle, with recalcitrant machines with errant computer messages and misplaced check marks, to register votes for Rawl. One said Rawl's name wasn't on her ballot; another said she could not be sure her vote was counted. Nettles called the results "unusual, extraordinary, incredible," and promised to "show the real math, the real explanation, the real statistics."

The bulk of the testimony played like "CSI: South Carolina," as experts with a long list of math, computer science and computer forensic credentials testified under oath about all the ways voting machine systems, particularly those that are software based, can get it wrong.

Rawl's campaign manager, Walter Ludwig, said, "I believe this election misfired" and attacked all the theories that have been used to explain Greene's win. He contrasted the disparity of the absentee voting, which is recorded by optical scan and which Rawl handily won, to the Election Day results.

Studies about the advantages of ballot position (Greene was first) show differences of a few percentage points, not 19, he said. Republican crossover, which is allowed in South Carolina primaries, "doesn't pass the test of intuition" with such hotly contested gubernatorial and House races on the GOP side.

Ludwig attacked the whispers that black voters preferred Greene because of his race. "What's stunning," he said, is that when looking at county-by-county tallies, there is no difference between the county's racial makeup and Greene's performance. Anyway, how would voters know Green's race, Ludwig said, since he didn't campaign. Ludwig said he's even heard it said that "everybody knows Greene is an African-American name." Actually, though, that would be Green, with no "e" on the end; most registered voters in South Carolina named Greene are actually white, he said figures show.

Neither Ludwig nor any of Rawl's supporters said they suspected deliberate tampering. "We're not asserting that the machines were hacked," said Ludwig. "We are asserting that the results are wrong." However, Nettles did tell me during a break that "there is a motive." He then said, "This is a perfect race for Jim DeMint." U.S. Rep. James Clyburn had wanted an investigation of Greene's win.

Despite the suspicions, it was not enough for those on the executive committee -- with a few exceptions -- to change the results or order a new primary election. Sallie Morgan of Union County told me she believed "somebody put him [Greene] up to do this." Still, she voted in his favor. Kaye Koonce of Charleston County said during a break that she was getting an education in voting machines. "Much of it strengthened my concerns about the lack of a paper trail," she said, before voting to back Rawl's protest. Brady Quirk-Garvan said he was shocked by Greene's win, "but that doesn't necessarily mean you get to change the results."

"We do the right thing even when it hurts us," state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter said before voting to reject Rawl's protest. "We do the right thing even when by doing the right thing it conflicts with everything that we feel in our hearts."

"If we react on emotion and not based on the law," she said, "how does this make us any different or any better than the Republicans?"

Though everyone in the room knew any choice had its own consequences and maintained an appropriately somber mood, one line did get big laughs. A speaker asked when anyone had seen such an illogical result and someone in the back shouted out: when "Mark Sanford got re-elected."

After the vote, Fowler was asked if the party would help the Greene campaign. She said she's trying to reach him, and there is that felony issue to resolve. The party's policy is "to help candidates only when they help themselves," Fowler said.

She is understandably sensitive to the damage Greene's win has done to the state party's reputation. But the mystery candidate, who managed to win without a website, campaign rallies, yard signs or appearances at any Democratic Party meetings, including the one that reaffirmed his spot in the November general election, has vowed to continue his improbable run.

Rawl said that he knew his case was scientific, theoretical and statistical, but he thought it was necessary to bring it to shed light on problems a Republican-controlled statehouse is not anxious to address. He could appeal, but, though visibly disappointed by Thursday's decision, he told me earlier, "If they tell me to go home, I'm home." To those who say his fight didn't matter because no Democratic candidate would have a chance in November anyway, Rawl said, "If Greene can beat me, why can't I beat DeMint."

He just won't get the chance to find out.