FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact:
Laura Scharr
SC Safe Elections Group
scsafeelections@zohomail.com
www.scsafeelections.org
Results of South Carolina Citizen-Led Canvass of 2020 November General Election Reveal Election Irregularities and Thousands of Errors In Voter Rolls
Columbia, S.C. – February 5, 2022 – SC Safe Elections Group, a non-partisan volunteer group comprised of approximately 75 citizens from across eight South Carolina counties presented findings of its canvass of South Carolina voter rolls and the 2020 General Election today. Presenters shared results that revealed widespread inaccuracies with voter rolls and potential ineligible votes.
“Our canvassing efforts have shown that much work needs to be done by our local and state election officials to clean up our voter rolls and to enforce existing laws, said Laura Scharr, leader of the South Carolina voter integrity effort. “Our state lawmakers also need to enact new legislation now that ensures greater accuracy and confidence in our elections. Every illegitimate vote cancels out one of our voices. It is essential that we not have any errors in our voter rolls and that only legal votes are counted.”
Highlights of the audit included the following:
• Approximately 21% of voters on the voter rolls appear to be ineligible or to have voted outside of the regulated guidelines.
• Over 4,300 registered voters on the rolls across eight counties were either deceased or had moved prior to the 2020 November election.
• We found 1,369 citizens were registered to vote (and many of which voted) at commercial addresses such as grocery stores, USPS locations, non-residential university addresses where the voters were not students, and vacation RV parks.
“For citizens to trust our elections, it’s imperative that state and local officials and representatives work together to clean up the voter rolls, fix broken systems, and ensure that our election laws are followed,” said S.C. State Representative Vic Dabney, District 52. “I applaud the efforts of all these citizens involved with the canvass who took months of their time to research our voter rolls. Clearly, we have election integrity issues that must be addressed.”
“If our elections are not trustworthy, we lose any confidence in our system, said Josiah Magnuson, S.C. State Representative for District 38. “This is not a partisan issue but one that is foundational to our Republic as a whole. I am so thankful for those who through dogged persistence are bringing to light possible attacks on our state’s election process and showing us what must be done to ensure those candidates the people legally vote for are those who get elected. I look forward to pushing for immediate legislation that will renew the security and accuracy of our elections.”
S.C. State Representative Robert J. “RJ” May, III of District 88 added, “Free and fair elections are the bedrock of our Republic. We must have confidence that our votes count and that only qualified citizens are casting ballots. As your state representative, my stance on election integrity is simple: No cheating! I’m attending this conference to learn, but more importantly, to stand with the people I represent who demand action from the General Assembly.”
Other issues addressed at the presentation included: 1) concerns with the voter machines, 2) the state’s use of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), and 3) voter roll and statistical election race anomalies. Canvass volunteer leaders from each county presented their findings; in addition, Jeff O’Donnell, a software and database expert, spoke about voter roll anomalies, and Phil Evans, a data analyst and engineer, spoke about election race anomalies. A summary report of the findings of the audit can be found at: https://scsafeelections.org. A video recording of the presentation can also be found at this website.