http://66.225.205.104/JR20100618.mp3
Alvin Greene is still the South Carolina Democratic Party's candidate for U.S. Senate. Executive committee members of the party deliberated for four hours yesterday evening before overwhelmingly voting to reject opponent Vic Rawl's protest and uphold the surprising outcome of their primary election. To be clear, members of the South Carolina Democratic Party executive committee are not thrilled with their choice for U.S. Senate. He hasn't done any of the things they expect their candidates to do - like show up to party conventions, or campaign. But when it came down to a choice between holding a do-over election or going with Greene, they went with him. "It was a real struggle but I think we made the right decision," said committee member Beatrice Johnston of Orangeburg. "Things don't always go the way we would like for them to go." Johnston was one of 38 committee members voting to uphold the outcome of the Democratic Senate primary. Only seven voted to overturn it. But Alvin Greene wasn't even there to see his fellow party members support him. Democratic officials from every corner of the state convened in a musty auditorium in Columbia to hear a protest from Vic Rawl, a former judge and Charleston legislator who lost to Greene by almost 20 percentage points. Since Greene didn't show, Rawl had the floor to himself. Actually, Rawl hired a lawyer named Truett Nettles to plead his case. "All the evidence you'll hear today is that this is not a valid result," Nettles told the committee. "This is not a true result of the way the voters voted." From the outset, Nettles made it clear the Rawl campaign didn't buy any of the conspiracy theories about how Greene got elected. It wasn't a grand Republican plot. It wasn't a fluke of people voting for the first of two unknown names on the ballot. No, Nettles said, the reason Vic Rawl lost to an unemployed veteran with no campaign website is because of "this machine and how they are not reliable." For the next two hours, Nettles essentially put the state's electronic voting machines on trial. He cited reports from several people he touted as independent experts who also happen to be well-known critics of electronic voting. A USC computer science professor named Duncan Buell was called to testify and he could hardly contain his disdain for the touch-screen voting systems. "They represent exactly the kinds of software problems we try to teach students not to make," said Buell. Some of the mistakes are so basic, Buell told the audience he would fail a student who made them in his class. Nettles also invited several voters to the stand to detail the glitches they encountered when tried to vote for Vic Rawl. But the committee was skeptical that a computer glitch, or even a malicious hacker, could account for all 30, 000 votes Alvin Greene had on Vic Rawl in the final tally. "Most of the evidence while it was statistical evidence, it was what ifs and might have beens and could have beens instead of what actually was," said Democratic party official Tim Moore, who led the decision to reject Rawl's protest. "It just didn't reach the standard we have to have to overcome an election," Moore added. After the party rejected his arguments, Vic Rawl made a brief statement to the press: "This not about me. It is not about the Republicans. It is not about blacks. It is not about whites. It is about the sanctity of our electoral process." Rawl called on the Democratic Party to demand that state lawmakers scrutinize the electronic voting system he believes robbed him of victory. He only took one question from reporters - would he appeal the decision? "No!" replied Rawl forcefully and abruptly ended the press conference. Rawl may still have legal options to appeal the election in court, but his campaign manager says they haven't discussed that yet. State Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler says the party will embrace Alvin Greene, and even contribute to his campaign, if he proves he's serious about winning. "If Mr. Greene gets past his legal issues and hits the campaign trail, then of course the Democratic Party will be interested in coming to his assistance," said Fowler. By "legal issues," she means the felony charge for which Greene was arrested in November. He's accused of showing obscene photos to a college student. Greene still refuses to talk about that and hung up on WFAE last night when told of Fowler's comment. But not before saying that Democratic Party officials "did the right thing" in voting to uphold his victory.