SCARBOROUGH PROTEST HEADED TO HOUSE WHERE ANYTHING CAN, WILL HAPPEN

The next representative from South Carolina’s 115th House District could be determined by the State House of Representatives, only it’s unclear how exactly that will happen.

Rep. Wallace Scarborough (R-Charleston), who was defeated last month by 211 votes, protested the results to the State Election Commission on the grounds that there were more than 700 illegal votes cast. His complaint was subsequently denied due to the fact that much of his “evidence” was debunked.

And now Scarborough is taking this whole embarrassing mess to the House in the hopes that his buddies will help him. The problem is, there’s almost no precedent for this and nobody — legislators included — seems to know what the hell they’re supposed to do or, more importantly, what they can do.

Since there is absolutely nothing in the state Constitution outlining how to handle an election appeal in the legislature, the guidelines come from the House rules.

The rules adopted on Dec. 2 stipulate only that “in cases of contest for a seat in the House, notice setting forth the grounds of such contest shall be given by the contestant to the House within three calendar days after the House first convenes, and in such case, the contest shall be determined by majority vote as speedily as reasonably possible.”

That’s basically it. Other than that, it’s wide open. The House can do pretty much anything it wants.

The only thing that is clear is that if they choose to uphold the results, then it’s over. Neither Scarborough nor his opponent Anne Peterson Hutto can challenge it any further.

But the House has at least two other options. They can either overturn the results and directly seat Scarborough, or they can order a re-election, which would cost millions of dollars and likely result in a win for Scarborough sans the massive Nov. 4 Democrat turnout.

I’m told it is unlikely the House will rule in Scarborough’s favor, but in South Carolina, you never know. Of course, anyone doing so could be committing political suicide.

If, however, enough representatives decide to take that route and the results of the election are not upheld, the fight would continue on as Hutto has vowed to take it to to federal court as a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

At that point Scarborough’s embarrassment would become a national story. But first we have to get to that point.

Given that House members have no idea what their options are or even which committee’s and/or sub-committees the appeal will be heard by, if any, I think it may be a while.