Reproduced from The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC (used with permission)
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Reeves gives up fight for Dorchester council seat

By: BOBBIE YOUNG    
Originally Published on: 11/05/94
Page:
DENIED:A request that the state Supreme hold a hearing on voting irregularities in the District 3 racewas turned down.
    J.C. Woodberry's position as the Republican candidate for Dorchester County Council District 3 is secure.
    The S.C. Supreme Court has denied Wayne Reeves' request for another hearing into voter irregularities in the Aug. 9 primary.
    ``I won't fight it anymore,'' Reaves said.
    Woodberry won the primary by 59 votes but Reeves won a new election from the county Republican Party when he documented numerous voter irregularities, such as ineligible voters voting and eligible voters not being allowed to vote.
    The state party's executive committee upheld the county party's decision and another vote was held Sept. 13. Reeves won that election by 28 votes.
    Woodberry appealed to the Supreme Court which ruled that there were not enough officially challenged ballots to have changed the results of the first election. The ruling said that because Reeves had not challenged each of the questionable ballots, the first election should stand and the second one be declared void.
    In the request for a rehearing, Reeves' attorney, Christine Companion of Charleston, said the court failed to consider that Reeves could not possibly have challenged all the questionable ballots because in some cases the problems were not discovered until after the voters were already in the booth.
    State law requires that a challenge be issued before the voter has entered the booth.
    In Reeves' own case, when he tried to vote for himself at the Givhans precinct, the lever would not work.
    He complained and found out that the machine had not been set to accept votes in District 3.
    That precinct is one of 13 split precincts in the 15-precinct district.
    Companion also said the court's ruling voiding the second election interfered with the Republican Party's right to pick its candi- date.
    Dorchester County Republican Party Chairman Stan Hall said Friday he had no comment on the court's refusal to rehear the issue.
    Reeves said Friday, ``I'd like to thank everybody for the confidence and support they showed in voting for me, and I will be back.''

Reproduced from The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC (used with permission)

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