ELLOREE – A protest was filed late Thursday by one of the write-in candidates in Elloree’s Sept. 30 special election.

Sarah Ann Parler, one of three write-in candidates in the election to fill the unexpired term of former District 2 Elloree Town Council member Barry Pauling, filed the protest an hour prior the 7 p.m. deadline.

“I am protesting the election and requesting that a new election be held. My basis for this is the failure of the election commission to give proper notice to the voters of this district as to the date of the election as required by state law,” Parler wrote.

Earlier on Thursday morning, the Elloree Election Commission certified the results of the Sept. 30 election, despite the failure by the Orangeburg County Voter Registration and Elections Office to place a notice of the election in the newspaper as required by state law.

Former Elloree councilman Harold Void won Tuesday’s election, getting 9 write-votes to Parler’s 8 write-in votes and Naome Wicks’ 2 write-in votes.

Howard Jackson, director of the county elections office, acknowledged Wednesday that his office “dropped the ball” in not placing a public notice of the Sept. 30 election in the newspaper. At Thursday morning’s certification hearing, Jackson told members of the Elloree Election Commission it was the fault of his office the election was not advertised.

Jackson said the failure to put the election notice in the newspaper, however, was not grounds to throw out Tuesday’s election results, saying the results would stand unless one of the losing write-in candidates filed a protest with the Elloree Election Commission by the deadline of 7 p.m. Thursday.

Neither Parler nor Wicks filed a protest at the certification hearing, and Elloree Election Commissioners Earl Polin and Doug Bledsoe subsequently reviewed and certified the votes, effectively confirming the election of Void to fill Pauling’s seat. Pauling died June 13; his term expires in November 2011.

Jackson said if a protest should be filed by the 7 p.m. deadline, the Elloree Election Commission, along with the town’s attorney, would schedule a meeting to hear the protest. If the protest was upheld, a new election would have to be held, officials said.

Chris Whitmire, a spokesman for the S.C. Election Commission, has said that although state law requires elections be advertised, if they are not advertised, the only remedy available is for one of the losing candidates in the election to file a protest based on that violation. That protest would have to be filed with the authority conducting the election within 48 hours after the election is held, he said Wednesday.

The county elections office oversees the Town of Elloree’s elections, but the Elloree Election Commission provides the poll workers and is responsible for certifying elections, Jackson has said.

At Thursday’s certification hearing, Bledsoe asked why the original election date of Oct. 7 was changed to Sept. 30. Jackson said his office miscalculated the time-frame as required by state law for the special election to be held and had to change the date of the election from Oct. 7 to Sept. 30.

Elloree Town Administrator John Singh said the town just wants the right thing to be done.

“Everybody makes mistakes, and they just have to be corrected in due time,” Singh said.

He said the town posted notices of the Sept. 30 election at Elloree Town Hall, on the town’s electronic message board, at the Elloree Post Office and the Elloree Water Department.

Singh said Thursday night he will seek direction from the Orangeburg County Voter Registration and Elections Office and the S.C. Election Commission on how to proceed now that Parler has filed a protest.

T&D Correspondent Danielle Sanders can be reached by e-mail at crazyd_308@hotmail.com.

T&D Region Editor Carol Barker also contributed to this report.

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