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South Carolina The Election Commission is trying to find out how a $28 million contract for new voting machines cost the agency $4 million more.
The investigation into the purchase of 3,200 ballot scanners in 2024 led to the election agency’s head and second-in-command being fired and a third employee losing his job. And this is not the only problem. with the Electoral Commission, Chairman Dennis Shedd said at Wednesday’s monthly meeting.
A recording device was hidden in the room before the commissioners met behind closed doors to discuss the fate of former executive director Howard Knapp and what Shedd called Knapp’s “very close friend and fellow employee” Paige Salonich.
Salonik, who was the agency’s deputy director before officials said she was fired, was fired after she was caught on video planting a recorder and making vulgar comments after hearing that Knapp was being let go.
“We’re exploring new things that were done by the old management,” Shedd said, taking time to answer reporters’ questions during the meeting.
Shedd stressed that any misconduct would not affect the integrity of any election.
Shedd said at least three state agencies are investigating the contract and other matters, and they don’t know what happened to the $4 million difference between the $28 million approved for commissioners and the $32 million authorized to be paid for the machines,
Knapp has not responded to requests for comment since being fired, and Salonik’s attorney said he had no comment Wednesday. Salonich sued the Election Commission soon after his dismissal, saying the agency had released embarrassing details about him.
Knapp was fired at the September meeting of the Election Commission. This led to a month of speculation as to whether he was let go because of the state’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice over a request for data on all South Carolina voters – negotiations that continue.
Shedd said that Knapp’s position on releasing information was the same as his: information could be released with a strict agreement on how it would be protected. Shedd said the firing had nothing to do with the data negotiations.
Commissioners discussed the request behind closed doors at Wednesday’s meeting. Shedd said they want a legally binding agreement that protects the privacy of the data, which includes names, addresses and other data sold by the state, as well as driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.
“I’ve been hacked. My state tax returns were hacked,” Shade said, recalling 2012 when hackers stole the personal data of more than 3.6 million people in South Carolina by obtaining Social Security numbers and credit card information from tax returns.
Shedd said the state could set up a system similar to about half the states in the US. They share data in tightly controlled settings so they can capture people registered to vote in more than one state.
South Carolina’s voter data “is already shared with about 25 other states,” Shedd said. “But that was shared under very strict security protocols.”
Several states have strongly opposed the Justice Department’s request. At least eight have been sued by the federal government for not complying with the request.
The states said the federal government has not said what it intends to do with the information.