Dear Editor,
I wasn’t sure who to contact, but I wanted to make you aware of what I think might be a potential ethics/ law violation by a candidate for mayor of Rock Hill, S.C. I would have contacted my local county election commission also, but the candidate – William Roddey – is currently on York County Council.
As you will see on this Facebook post, Mr. Roddey was giving away money at a local business to “help pay bills” while wearing his campaign shirt. He then posted this prominently on his social media, using his campaign hashtags.
(Click to view)
(Via: Facebook)
Again – I’m not sure if any laws have been broken. but this did seem fishy to me.
Thank you for your time in looking in to this matter.
– A Concerned Rock Hill Citizen
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SIC SEZ …
What an interesting submission! Obviously state law (§ 7-25-50, to be precise) prohibits anyone from procuring “by the payment, delivery, or promise of money or other article of value, (the promise of) another to vote for or against any particular candidate or measure at any election.” So, if Roddey communicated such a quid pro quo at any point during this process, he would likely be in big trouble. I suspect he would also likely be in big trouble if he used campaign funds to help these people pay their bills. Now, assuming Roddey used his own money and made no election-related solicitations … that’s another kettle of fish. Please do keep us in the loop as to how the S.C. State Ethics Commission (SCSEC) responds to your inquiry on the matter. We’ll be very interested to follow up on this.
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