SC’s Gerald Malloy drops protest over election election results in state Senate district
Following a report that showed some votes were counted twice during a recount, former state Sen. Gerald Malloy dropped his protest of the Senate District 29 results.
But the Darlington County Democrat still has doubts about the results for the state Senate district that includes parts of Chesterfield, Darlington, Lee, Marlboro and Sumter counties.
“I have tremendous respect for and will always honor the South Carolina Senate. This election has left many serious questions,” Malloy said in a statement. “But to take a protest to its full conclusion would leave Senate District 29 without representation during a critical period and put the honorable institution I love in an untenable circumstance.”
Ahead of the previously scheduled protest hearing over the District 29 results, a South Carolina Election Commission report indicated that nearly 300 votes in Lee County were counted twice during an automatic recount leading to a smaller than originally reported vote margin.
A successful protest would lead to redo of the election between Malloy and Republican J.D. Chaplin.
The report, released by the State Election Commission on Monday, said Republican Chaplin received 24,783 votes. Malloy received 24,529 votes.
The hearing on the protest was scheduled for Tuesday on the State House grounds. However, any decision by the state election commission would have gone to the state Senate, which will have 34 Republicans when it convenes for its reorganization Wednesday.
After election night, Chaplin led by 278 votes but the margin was within 1% triggering an automatic recount. After the recount, the margin dropped to an 87 vote lead for Chaplin.
Because of the large discrepancy and specifically issues surrounding Lee County’s totals, Malloy filed his protest.
According to the state election commission, 360 test ballots were mistakenly included in an early voting group total that should not have been. The test ballots were not included in the recount, which led to a lower early voting total.
The commission also found that 288 ballots were scanned twice during the recount, once in the Election Day totals and again in a early voting group totals.
“When these 288 duplicate ballots were identified and removed from the Election Day Group recount tally, the recount total is equivalent to the original election night tabulation for the Election Day Group,” the state election commission says in it report.
Even when announcing his withdrawal, Malloy questioned the results of the election and pointed to how the election commission did not evaluate the voter poll lists or activity logs of the electronic voting equipment.
“The number of questionable and improperly counted votes in the certified results of the 2024 general election for Senate District 29 cause the certified results to be uncertain,” Malloy’s attorney Matthew Richardson wrote in Malloy’s protest withdrawal. “The law requires a new election because all questionable and improperly counted votes should be subtracted from the declared winner’s total.”
The S.C. GOP celebrated Malloy’s decision to drop the protest.
“Republicans worked incredibly hard to take out a 22-year incumbent Democrat, and their hard work paid off,” S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said in a statement.
