What Voter Intimidation Looks Like

Yesterday, FITS reported on serious voting irregularities in the town of Swansea, S.C.

And nobody cared … because they don’t live in Swansea, S.C.

Still, if you’re looking for a case study in why rural South Carolina remains as backward as ever … Swansea is your town. In fact it appears as though the Lexington County hamlet is home to an especially brazen vote buying scheme – with public money.

The gentleman pictured (above) is John “Jimbo” Ziegler, brother of incumbent Swansea town councilwoman Linda Butler and a supporter of incumbent mayor Ray Spires (a.k.a. this genius).

What’s he doing with the pen and pad?

“Taking names.”

The same thing his councilwoman sister and Mayor Spires were doing (until Spires was forcibly removed from Swansea’s polling place).

What is “taking names?”

Hang on … we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, it’s important to get the lay of the land (to the extent that’s possible).

According to leaders of both political parties, Swansea’s city limits are about as well defined as the Eastern Front in the early days of Operation Barbarossa. No one is exactly sure which government controls what land … which makes it difficult to determine who is (and isn’t) eligible to vote in municipal elections.

“People who have voted as Swansea residents in the past were told this year they were no longer Swansea residents and could not vote,” Randy Herald, chairman of the Lexington County Democratic Party, told FITS.

In fact it’s much worse than that. At different times on election day, Swansea poll workers banned people from voting, accepting their ballots on a provisional basis and then permitted them to vote without verifying their names on the official database.

This “Wild West” mentality create an atmosphere ripe for corruption, and the ruling “elite” in Swansea appear to have taken full advantage.

According to our sources, Ziegler was bribing voters with cash payments as well as free water from the city.

Wait … free water?

“The Mayor has told voters if they signed up for new water and sewer they were automatically annexed into the town limits,” one source explained. “The expectation was simple: If you want free water – and maybe a little something extra – you show up and vote for the Mayor and his allies.”

Confronted by witnesses, Ziegler denied he was bribing anyone and claimed he was merely a “poll watcher.”

However multiple sources tell FITS they saw him hand items to voters outside the polling place.

“There was a carrot and a stick,” one source familiar with the operation tells FITS. “If they showed up to vote they got paid for their trouble. If they didn’t, they got their water turned off.”

Wow …

Not only that, we’re told the Swansea police are said to have overseen the whole thing … and even exerted its influence on behalf of the incumbents.

In this confusing, corrupt environment Spires won reelection by a 127-91 vote margin over challenger Jerald Sanders … which is surprisingly close under the circumstances.

Not surprisingly, Sanders is protesting the race.

“Due to multiple voting irregularities I will contest the election results,” Sanders said in a statement provided to FITS.

So … will the U.S. Department of Justice (which claims to be a champion for the disenfranchised) investigate this flagrant violation of civil rights?

Don’t count on it … after all if the feds are content to let hoodlums in Richland County rob taxpayers of $1.2 billion, we doubt they’re going to give much of a rip about this small rural town.