SOUTH CAROLINA: Elections leader wants probe of more than 900 dead voters

State officials are calling for an investigation after records determined that more than 900 people listed as deceased also have recently voted, calling into question the integrity of the state's election system as South Carolina's first-in-the-South GOP presidential primary just 10 days away.


What's unclear from the analysis released Wednesday to a House Judiciary Committee panel from the state Department of Motor Vehicles is whether voter fraud was committed by people assuming the identities of the deceased or if poor record keeping has resulted in South Carolina residents being classified as deceased.

Kevin Shwedo, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, did not have answers, saying that would be up to investigators. He based his testimony before lawmakers on state Election Commission records that included when people last voted and matched that with death records.

The panel took no action on his report.

"If you have voted after you are dead, there is a good, strong possibility that you did something illegal," he said to reporters after speaking to the panel. "At that point in time, it comes out of my hands and goes into legal hands. ... It's not my job to explain that."


Marci Andino, executive director of the state Election Commission, said the DMV analysis and claims, if true, would mean the election process has been compromised by illegal activity.

"It would mean every person's legal vote has been diluted by illegal ones. Such a reality would strike a blow to the public's confidence in the election process," Andino said in a statement.

Attorney General Alan Wilson referred the DMV's allegations to state investigators. Wilson said in a statement that the number of people cited in the analysis "is an alarming number and clearly necessitates an investigation into criminal activity."

The analysis came out of research related to the state's new voter ID law. That measure was rejected last month by the U.S. Justice Department.

The law required people to have state- or military-issued identification, a U.S. passport or a new state voter registration card that contains a picture in order to vote in person. Photo identification is not required for voting by absentee ballot.


Shwedo's testimony was the first public testimony for lawmakers after the federal action as the state plans to defend the law in federal court. His analysis would figure heavily into arguments as the state tries to defend the law. Wilson said Tuesday South Carolina would take the federal agency's challenge of the law to a federal court in Washington.

It prompted Republican insiders to say the analysis and possible voter fraud is the reason why the new law was needed. But the analysis also creates problems for Republicans, who argued the law would not have a greater impact on black voters than white voters. Shwedo said the analysis does not support that argument.

Republicans who said the law was needed to prevent voting fraud said the Election Commission used bogus data that was central to the federal agency's rejection of the law. Democrats said it was yet another sign that the GOP rushed through the legislation that needed more analysis.

The election commission and the DMV originally matched records on registered voters and people who have state-issued driver's licenses or identification cards. When the work was completed, Department of Motor Vehicles Director Kevin Shwedo said he had misgivings on results that showed 239,333 people lacked state-issued ID.

Shwedo's office then performed its own analysis, finding 37,295 records that appeared to belong to dead people and 91,466 belonging to those whose state license records had been dropped because they now had a driver's license in another state.

Meanwhile, more than 58,000 simply appeared to have expired South Carolina licenses. There also was at least one person in the data whose age was said to be 130.

Shwedo told legislators that the state Election Commission knew about problems with the data used to support the law as the federal Justice Department reviewed it.

He said the elections agency ignored the problems.


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