Head of South Carolina elections fired after voting machine contract had unexplained $4M overrun

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Election Commission is trying to figure out how a contract for new machines for voting for $28 million ended up costing the agency $4 million more.

The investigation into buying the 3,200 ballot scanners in 2024 has led to the firing of the head of the election agency and the second in command and cost a third staffer his job. And it isn’t the only problem. with the Election Commission, Chairman Dennis Shedd said at Wednesday’s monthly meeting.

There was a recording device hidden in the room before the commissioners met behind closed doors to discuss former Executive Director Howard Knapp’s fate and what Shedd called Knapp’s “very close friend and fellow employee” Paige Salonich.

Salonich was the agency’s deputy director before officials said she was fired for being caught on video planting the recorder and a issuing profane outburst after hearing Knapp had been let go.

“We’re finding out new stuff that old management did,” Shedd said as he took time during the meeting to answer questions from reporters.

Shedd insisted any misconduct did not effect the integrity of any election.

Shedd did say at least three state agencies are investigating the contract and other matters, and he does not know what happened to the $4 million difference between the $28 million commissioners approved and the $32 million authorized to be paid for the machines,

Knapp has not responded to requests for comment since he was fired, and Salonich’s lawyer said he had no comment Wednesday. Salonich did sue the Election Commission shortly after she was fired, saying the agency released embarrassing details about her.

Knapp was fired at the Election Commission’s September meeting. That led to a month of speculation on whether he was let go because of the state’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice over a request for data about all South Carolina voters — talks that are continuing.

Shedd said Knapp’s position on releasing the information was similar to his: the information could be released with a strict agreement on keeping it secure. Shedd said the firing had nothing to do with negotiations over the data.

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 the state sells along with information it doesn’t like driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

“I’ve been hacked. My state tax return was hacked,” Shedd said, recalling in 2012 when hackers stole personal data from 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 can set up a system similar to what it has with about half the states in the U.S. They share the data in tightly controlled settings so they can ferret out people registered to vote in more than one state.

South Carolina’s voter data “has already been shared with about 25 other states,” Shedd said. “But that was shared under very strict security protocols.”

A number of states have pushed back harder against the Justice Department 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 explained what it wants to do with the information.