Marion County Democratic Party requests SLED open probe into voter fraud claims

MARION COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — Marion County’s Democratic Party is asking the state’s top law enforcement agency to investigate voter fraud allegations stemming from the June 11 coroner’s race.

A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division spokeswoman told News13 that no active investigation is pending.

Candidate Kendra Fling says vote harvesting and irregularities with absentee ballots impacted election results. Fling lost to long-time incumbent Jerry Richardson by 304 votes.

The county Democratic Party’s executive committee held a hearing and ruled that Richardson’s victory was legitimate, saying Fling didn’t provide sufficient evidence to back up her claims.

But given the seriousness of her allegations, party leaders asked SLED to step in.

“Some people testified that they signed an absentee ballot, and when they checked at the county election office, it had not been registered,” said Rudolph Bryant, executive committee manager of the Marion County Democratic Party. “They had given their absentee ballots to someone who came to collect it.”

Bryant added that testimony was given mostly about the mishandling of absentee ballots.

“It was also testified that individuals went around to people’s homes to collect their absentee ballots and, in some instances, asked the individuals to sign the ballot and leave it blank for the collector to fill out later,” he said.

News13 reached out to Kendra Fling for comment but has been unable to speak with her as of Wednesday.

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Tomika Jackson joined News13 in April 2024 as a multimedia journalist. She started her journalism career in 2000 with previous stops at WALB TV10, CBS47 & WTOC11 in Savannah, Georgia. Tomika is a Georgia native and Valdosta State University graduate. Follow Tomika on X, formerly Twitter , and Instagram . You can read more of her work here .

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