Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008

High court orders another Atlantic Beach mayor's race

The state Supreme Court ordered a third iteration Monday of Atlantic Beach's November 2007 mayoral race, cancelling a runoff scheduled for Tuesday and ordering another contest within 30 days with no write-in candidates on the ballot.

"It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out,'' said Councilwoman Retha Pierce, who will face suspended Mayor Irene Armstrong in the new election. "This shouldn't have had to go to the Supreme Court."

The present election saga started more than a year ago, when Pierce bested Armstong by a vote of 71-70. A series of appeals ultimately led the case to the state Supreme Court, which on Oct. 10 ordered a new election between Pierce and Armstrong.

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That election was set for Dec. 2, but a write-in space was included on the ballot over Pierce's objections. She received 37 votes and Armstrong, who had since been indicted on misconduct charges and removed from office, received 2. Councilwoman Charlene Taylor received 25 write-in votes and resident Josephine Isom received 13, creating the apparent need for a runoff between Pierce and Taylor that would have been held Tuesday.

On Friday, however, two Atlantic Beach residents who support Pierce, Patricia Bellamy and Nicole Kenion, filed a request with the state Supreme Court for an emergency injunction stopping the runoff. They argued that the Dec. 2 special election should not have included the write-in blank, drawing from the high court's order for a new election "as to the parties concerned" in the original November 2007 contest, Armstrong and Pierce.

Their request alleged Armstrong had a "scheme to bring in Charlene Taylor as proxy for her in the mayoral election'' and that the plot involved not only Armstrong and Taylor but also former Town Manager Charles Williams, town election commission attorney Amanda Bailey, Horry County elections director Sandy Martin, and S.C. Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum. Armstrong, Taylor, and Williams conspired to cancel town meetings, refrain from holding town election-commission meetings and direct Bailey to request the write-in blank, the complaint alleged, while Martin and Baum participated by allowing it to happen.

"People have just been violating my rights and violating my rights and violating my rights," Pierce said Monday.

The complaint asked the Supreme Court to install Pierce as mayor and hold all of those defendants in contempt, but the court declined to do either. In a 3-2 decision, however, it upheld Pierce's original contention that she and Armstrong should have been the only options on the Dec. 2 ballot.

"The inclusion of a space for a write-in candidate on the ballot was in violation of this Court's opinion," according to Monday's order, which was signed by Chief Justice Jean Toal, Justice John Waller and Justice Donald Beatty. Two justices dissented, Costa Pleicones and John Kittredge, saying the Supreme Court should not have responded this time.

It was unclear Monday when that election will actually be called. The town's regularly scheduled workshop is also set for Tuesday, same as the runoff election, but no public notice regarding the workshop has been issued.

Since the removal of Armstrong in March, the town's remaining four members have been largely stuck in a 2-2 voting pattern on major issues, a problem likely to go unresolved well into the next year. If Armstrong wins, state officials have said she cannot be seated until the resolution of her criminal charges, and if Pierce wins, her seat on the Town Council will be declared vacant, and another special election will have to be called to fill it -- a process that could take several months.

Responses varied

A variety of responses were filed to the residents' complaint Monday. Bailey said her good-faith legal opinion as the town election commission attorney was that South Carolina law generally provides for a write-in blank on special-election ballots, and the court order's intent was "not to alter the form of the ballot for the Mayoral Election.''

Taylor said Kenion and Bellamy's accusations of conspiracy were "false and untrue," as she had no contact or conversations with Armstrong. Armstrong may have been among the people in the town supporting her, but Taylor said she did not even campaign, because she was in Florida from Nov. 24 to Dec. 8 for the birth of her granddaughter.

"Irene did not talk to me about the election, period," Taylor said.

Attorney David Canty said his client, Armstrong, is "disinclined to participate further in the matter."

"She doesn't want to be involved in it," Canty said. "She doesn't want to spend the time or the money."

The S.C. Attorney General's office, responding on behalf of the state Election Commission, said the proper venue for any appeal should have been the State Board of Canvassers, noting that Bellamy and Kenion were not candidates and thus "without standing to file the protest or ask for any injunctive relief."

Pierce's attorney, Walker, could not be reached for comment, but his letter to the Horry County Election Commission immediately after the Dec. 4 hearing, however, argues that the inclusion of Taylor and Isom as write-in candidates "completely ignored" the Supreme Court's order.

"It is Ms. Pierce's belief that the decision to make Mayor Pro Tem Charlene Taylor a candidate in the mayoral race is a contempt of the South Carolina Supreme Court decision, an obstruction of justice, and misconduct in office by public officials involved," Walker writes. "To have perpetuated such voter fraud on Pierce, the legitimate candidate, has also violated her civil rights and the civil rights of voters in the first and second election."

Neither former Town Manager Charles Williams nor the Horry County Election Commission, the other two defendants named, responded to the filing.

"Our legal staff didn't see it necessary unless directed otherwise by the state Supreme Court,'' said county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier.