Rawl at his protest hearing

The South Carolina Democratic Executive Committee has upheld last week’s primary results in the race for U.S. Senate that gave a win to unknown candidate Alvin Greene. Greene, who has been a focus of national media for a week, received 60 percent of the vote over Vic Rawl, who protested the election results.

In a hearing at the Education Association Building in Columbia Thursday evening Rawl’s attorney called witnesses to testify, even though Greene did not speak. The focus was on the malfunction of voting machines.

Rawl’s campaign manager Walter Ludwig said the election misfired. He sited abnormalities, like a big difference between Rawl’s absentee votes, counted one way, and regular votes counted by the machines on primary day.  Ludwig pointed to a 43 percent discrepancy between absentee and regular votes in Lancaster County, even though the two categories are usually close. He said the state’s voting machines were purchased as used and that they were old.

AUDIO: Ludwig on abnormalities (4:58)

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The two GOP Gubernatorial candidates in next weeks runoff , Nikki Haley and Gresham Barrett, took part in an hour long debate on the Upstate’s WORD Radio. Two candidates touched on a number of topics including immigration.

State Representative Nikki Haley.

AUDIO: Haley on immigration (:19)

Congressman Gresham Barrett.

AUDIO: Barrett on immigration (:23)

The runoff election will be next Tuesday.