This below resolution was passed at the Abbeville county convention, and will now go to the resolutions committee. If the resolutions committee passes it, the resolution will be up for a vote at the state convention. However, before the resolutions committee votes, they want to know your opinion. Please use the comments section below to give us your opinion, and please use your real name. Thank you!

WHEREAS, the right of the people to vote is one of the most sacred and beneficial of all rights protected by our state and federal constitutions; and

WHEREAS, the confidence of the public in the voting process is a cornerstone of their confidence in the American political system, and our way of life in this State; and

WHEREAS, our State Constitution is not a “living document” in its ability to be altered, or to have the definition of words contained within it altered, so as to adversely impact the public without the informed consent of the people who ratified it – thereby agreeing to any changes that arise from these alterations; and

WHEREAS, the word “ballot” as used in this Constitution has a clear meaning that is well understood by the public and the legal system – that being: “A … ticket used in
voting privately, and, for that purpose, put, into a box, (commonly called a
ballot-box,) or into some other contrivance” (Bouvier’s Law Dictionary); or : “Process or means of voting, usually in secret, by written or printed tickets or slips of paper …” (Blacks Law Dictionary); and

WHEREAS, electronic voting machines provide no auditable trail of paper for certification by local election judges or recount officials thereby casting enormous doubts on the credibility of election results; and

WHEREAS, though technological advances seem to make the “ballot” obsolete, the reliance on machinery for vote tabulation, and the corporations who provide them to government, have come under increasing doubts and scrutiny in recent times as to their reliability, their subjection to corruption, their accessibility by persons unseen to the election judges, and the ability of these machines to enable the results of any given election to be altered with no ability of the general public or election judges to verify the results of any given machine or group of machines; and

WHEREAS, local election judges are not permitted to even verify the totals of even a single machine before its storage device is removed; and

WHEREAS, the public has a right to expect that the results of any election, whatever the result may be, was an honest and accurate reflection of the will of the people.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Abbeville County Republican Party supports legislation that obeys the original intent of the State Constitution to the degree that paper ballots be restored for any and all elections conducted within this State; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Abbeville County Republican Party recommends that elected officials within our State prepare election judges and their own systems to implement and use paper ballots exclusively from this point forward, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Abbeville County Republican Party recommends that members of the Legislative Delegation sponsor and/or endorse legislation to return to paper ballots at the next coming elections in all jurisdictions within this State.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT copies of this RESOLUTION are to be forwarded to the Governor of South Carolina, the Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, the President of the South Carolina Senate, and each member of the Legislative Delegation in Columbia, SC.