This story was updated at 12:20 p.m. Dec. 3, 2024, to include the South Carolina Election Commission's response to criticism over its role in the recount.
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On Monday afternoon, Democrat Gerald Malloy, who served as the state senator for District 29 for 22 years, withdrew his protest against a recount that showed his Republican opponent, J.D. Chaplin, narrowly winning the race.
The withdrawal comes on the eve of what was to be a hearing on the protest.
Chaplin will serve as District 29's senator in the next legislative session.
In his withdrawal statement, Malloy said, "“I have tremendous respect for and will always honor the South Carolina Senate. This election has left many serious questions. But to take a protest to its full conclusion would leave Senate District 29 without representation during a critical period and put the honorable institution I love in an untenable circumstance. Therefore, I am directing my attorneys to stand down, and I have called Senator Chaplin to help in the transition. I will continue to work to improve our infrastructure, public safety, and education among the many other needs in the Pee Dee.”
Malloy's campaign issued a statement that criticizes the Election Commission:
"There were unprecedented changes to the vote counts in the recount. The certified results from the mandatory recount in Senate District 29 are wrong by more than the margin of 87 votes. With these facts, the law clearly points to a new election," the statement said. "But things changed when the State Election Commission (SEC) evaluated two errors in the Lee County vote counts. In a remarkable feat of reverse engineering, the SEC looked into the ballot boxes and behind the secrecy of our voting booths to justify its re-tabulation of Lee County votes. The SEC evaluation did not look at the voter poll lists or the activity logs of the electronic voting equipment used in this election. Senator Malloy sought an in-depth review of this election process."
Duncan Buell, a retired professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina, backed Malloy's concerns, saying in his own letter to the state Election Commission, "One cannot conclude who won the election without a complete exposure of the data and a verification that the data support the conclusion of who won.”
Election Commission Director Howie Knapp responded Tuesday tin a statement:
"The SEC is proud of the diligent efforts made by our staff to identify the cause of the irregularities in the State Senate District 29 recount conducted by Lee County," Knapp said. "A detailed report of our findings is now available on our website for public review (for convenience, I am attaching a copy to this email), but the conclusion is ballots were counted that should not been, both on election day and in the recount. However, in the end, the result was the same—Senator J.D. Chaplin won the election."
The statement continued: "The Commission refused to release the Cast Vote Records requested by Senator Malloy because it is against the law to do so. The three largest concerns of the Commission during Senator Malloy’s protest were to ensure fairness in the voting process, accuracy in the counting of votes, and to protect the secrecy of the ballot. While state law does not grant the SEC the authority to hold county election offices or their boards accountable, the SEC will be further investigating the processes and actions that led to the irregularities found in the report. Now that we know what happened, we need to find out why it happened. The SEC is committed to utilizing all available resources to work with Lee County to ensure that the county adheres to all election laws, policies, and procedures in the future."
Malloy's withdrawal closes the book on a saga that began immediately following the November general Election. With almost exactly 50,000 votes cast for Malloy and Chaplin, 287 votes separated them.
Following a mandatory recount, 87 votes separated the two, with Chaplin coming out ahead both times.
Malloy had filed a protest against the results of the recount, focusing most of his concern on Lee County, where vote totals following the recount were markedly different from totals counted on Election Night.
