Clyburn Claims 'Hacking' Behind Greene's Surprise Win in S.C. Senate Race

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Clyburn Claims 'Hacking' Behind Greene's Surprise Win in S.C. Senate Race

Hackers must be behind Senate candidate Alvin Greene's victory in the South Carolina Democratic primary last week, Rep. James Clyburn claimed in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

Trying to account for how a candidate who had no money and no campaign infrastructure was able to pull out a victory over a well-funded local lawmaker in a statewide race, the powerful South Carolina Democrat said the touch-screen voting machines used by the state are notoriously unreliable. Without citing evidence, Clyburn said the voting machines could have been compromised.

"I believe there was some hacking done into that computer," Clyburn told Fox News, suggesting that somebody at the state could have deliberately bought those machines so that the system would be vulnerable. South Carolina uses a machine called the iVotronic.

"Maybe somebody wanted the machines that were easily hacked into ... We had no business with those machines in South Carolina," he said.

The State Election Commission rejected that theory on Tuesday. Chris Whitmire, spokesman for the commission, said the department has not detected even a hint of fraud or hacking in Tuesday's election and dismissed the charge that the system is not dependable.

"We've used this voting system since 2004 and it has always performed as it is designed to perform and it's been accurate and reliable," he told FoxNews.com. Whitmire said the 12,000 machines used by South Carolina have been used for "thousands of candidates" and that "no candidate has made this claim before."

Several theories have emerged for how Greene was able to pull out a victory over former state lawmaker Vic Rawl, including speculation that Greene's position at the top of the ballot helped him win votes.

Democrats are understandably alarmed over Greene's win. In interviews shortly after his surprise win, he demonstrated a lack of understanding about key policy issues that a senator would be expected to grasp. He also is facing a felony charge allegedly for showing pornography to a college student.

Rasmussen Reports released a poll on Tuesday that showed Republican Sen. Jim DeMint trouncing Greene in a general election. The poll showed DeMint pulling 58 percent to Greene's 21 percent. The poll of 500 likely state voters was conducted June 10. It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Clyburn continued to allege Tuesday that Greene was a "plant," though not explicitly saying the Republican Party put him there.

"Whether it was just to manipulate the outcome or just to carry out some mischief, I don't know. But laws were broken and investigation needs to take place," he said.

Greene's defeated opponent Rawl is calling for such a review. He filed a protest with the state party. The executive committee of the South Carolina Democratic Party will meet Thursday to review the filing.

Rawl told Fox News on Tuesday that he never saw one piece of campaign material from Greene before the election. He said he's not sure yet whether his protest will lead to a formal appeal of the vote.

"I don't know if I will appeal or not. I cross that bridge as I get to it. We take this situation one step at a time," he said.

Rawl's campaign had election experts review the results and said they turned up startling irregularities. Rawl has also questioned the reliability of the voting machines used by South Carolina.

Republicans have dismissed the allegation or suggestion that someone in the party planted Greene to sabotage the race. State Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson said Democrats are just "embarrassed" that Greene won.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/15/clyburn-claims-hacking-greenes-surprise-win-sc-senate-race/

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Ah, Democratic racism. Aint it beautiful.

If this guy was a republican the democrats would be screaming racism if they dared to question his nomination.

However, since he's a democrats, it's ok to do so.

[JohnSmith2007 353]

Ah, Democratic racism. Aint it beautiful.

If this guy was a republican the democrats would be screaming racism if they dared to question his nomination.

However, since he's a democrats, it's ok to do so.

Since both Clyburn and Greene are black the racism angle doesn't hold. It isn't racism it is just very strange.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Since both Clyburn and Greene are black the racism angle doesn't hold. It isn't racism it is just very strange.

Other democrats were screaming prior to Clyburn's challenge... this has been going on for the past week here..

[Dan J 277]

Voting machines have never been particularly trustworthy due to lack of transparency with the systems and companies making them. For many machines, if they were tampered with, there is often no sign of tampering.

No idea if fraud did occur, but just pointing out that we are basing elections on we can't even trust to be accurate.

[alienlovechild 75]

"We've used this voting system since 2004 and it has always performed as it is designed to perform and it's been accurate and reliable," he told FoxNews.com. Whitmire said the 12,000 machines used by South Carolina have been used for "thousands of candidates" and that "no candidate has made this claim before."

Clyburn continued to allege Tuesday that Greene was a "plant," though not explicitly saying the Republican Party put him there.

Clyburn has a record of making things up when it suits him. He was one the fellows who claimed the tea party supporters were repeatedly shouting the "n" word at him on Captitol Hill when no cameras picked it up.

Now that's he's lost, we won't have to hear from that asshat again.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]