There may finally be some accountability as it relates to one of the most egregious examples of public corruption the state of South Carolina has ever seen.
We’re referring to the notorious “Richland County Robbery,” a rigged election that deprived Midlands-area taxpayers of $1.2 billion after it was “approved” in 2012.
Sources familiar with the situation tell us a statewide grand jury has been impaneled and is digging into this infamous heist – although it’s not immediately clear whether the investigation is focused on the stolen vote or the questionable appropriation of its spoils.
To recap: After county residents narrowly rejected this tax hike in 2010, “Republican” and Democratic legislative leaders in Richland County passed a law seizing control of the local election commission. Then they installed their hand-picked puppet as its new leader.
The result of this “coup?” Illegal shortages of voting machines in 2012 – shortages which were targeted disproportionately in districts where the tax hike was opposed. This led to abnormally long wait times and the mass disenfranchisement of anti-tax voters.
To comply with state election law, Richland County was supposed to have at least 864 operable voting machines deployed across the county. At the time of the election, it reportedly had at least 925 operable machines available – more than enough to meet the legal requirement. Another forty-five machines were in possession of the county, but were said to have been inoperable due to various malfunctions.
How many machines were actually deployed? Let’s consult the “smoking gun” email obtained by this website in early 2013 implicating then-director Lillian McBride.
“I just talked with Lillian and she gave me a revised list of the machines needed for the Nov 6 Election,” an unidentified election commission employee wrote to an undisclosed list of recipients. “She got the number down to 605 for machines.”
Here, again, is that memo (note the July 3, 2012 date) …
(Click to view)
(Pic: Provided)
Despite compelling evidence of the heist, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has refused to launch an investigation into the matter. Not only that, the S.C. Supreme Court (without comment) upheld the rigged election. Meanwhile the puppet who pulled it off got rewarded with a new job and a lifetime pension.
So far the only accountability over any of this has come from the S.C. Department of Revenue (SCDOR) and its former director Rick Reames.
Reames’ investigation didn’t target those responsible for stealing the election (that’s the job of S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson), but his auditors did follow the money … and produce some arrests.
Is this investigation a follow-up of the work Reames’ did? Or is the grand jury looking at the far more important electoral irregularities (and the political pressure that produced them)?
Stay tuned … we’re digging …
UPDATE: MSM is confirming …
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