“Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye…” — Elementary school saying
For those not old enough to remember the above quotation, that was an old saying kids used to say when I was in elementary school as their ‘oath’ to verify that what they were saying was 100% truthful. That was supposed to be the ‘gold standard’ of whether or not someone was being honest, straightforward and telling the truth because they were making the sign of the cross—a Christian symbol that should not be violated. Those were the days! If it was only that simple in our adult world. Unfortunately, even way back then the ‘oath’ did not always guarantee honesty or truthfulness. Is it any different today?
This is the third article in a series. The first article was whether or not fraud took place in the Greenville County GOP Delegate Registration and Officer Election? The second article asked did the GCRP involve itself in ballot harvesting, and now this third article concerning the Greenville County Republican Party (GCRP).
Late last night the leadership of Greenville County released its ‘Special Committee Report’ on the nature of their findings on Greenville County Republican Party (GCGOP) officer election transparency, integrity, irregularities, and the corresponding answers to each political charge from those involved. By all appearances, this report is fraught with, and highlights, non-answers, redirects, redacted information, after the fact justification, and an overall sense that election malfeasance took place and that the Republican Party leadership now appears to be trying to cover up.
As a child saying “Cross my heart…” indicated a truthful witness.
If there is anything sacred to our system of elections in the United States of America, it must be the transparency and the openness of elections so citizens can believe in the honesty and integrity of the election process itself. Our last general election cycle highlights this fact.
How can the normal flow of the Greenville County election process and traditional election behavior have been thrown out the window in favor of a more manipulated event? Was this actually a fair fight?
“Religion and good morals are the only solid foundation of public Liberty and happiness.” — Samuel Adams
The GCGOP ‘Special Committee Report’ highlights that something may have happened but does nothing to indicate who is going to be held accountable for the inappropriate behavior and the steps to assure this will never happen again. The Special Committee simply provided the facts they could ascertain through the GCGOP and SCGOP firewall. As documented in the report, there were many non-answers, half answers, and answers that appear to be made up after the fact.
The bottom-line theme and appearance of this Report is that the GCGOP got their hands ‘caught in the cookie jar’ of election manipulation, and they are now trying to justify and explain their actions after the fact. Business sense would indicate that there is now a litany of attorneys that are providing legal counsel and advising the GCGOP and SCGOP on their most defensible position in a court of law. In other words, it’s a CYA scenario and what can we say to justify the action of GCGOP leadership via sanitized responses that will minimize legal or political exposure?
Honestly, anyone who believes in free and fair elections—regardless of which side of the aisle you stand on—should be incensed at anybody or any organization that attempts to justify fraud, cheating, manipulation, or the theft of votes in any way regardless of your political party, relationship status, where you live, or where you vote! Citizens cannot tolerate this immoral behavior!
This is the death knell of the Republic if allowed and must be shouted down from the rooftops! And if suspected, must be publicly aired and come to an unequivocal conclusion of propriety, and violators of public and private trust must immediately resign. This is no-nonsense!
Since this report has zero recommendations on forthcoming actionable items, we at The Standard would like to offer our own concerns and potential recommendations through a series of questions. Below are questions we think need to be addressed and answered candidly in what we think is missing from this GCGOP ‘Special Committee Report’:
- Who is going to be held accountable for the election manipulation and malfeasance?
- Will those involved be asked to voluntarily or be mandated to offer their resignations?
- Will the delegate registration fees be reimbursed for ALL Republicans in South Carolina?
- Is it legal to pay for the delegation fees for some Republicans and not others?
- Is the delegate registration fee considered a political donation? If not, how is the fee categorized?
- Why did it take an anonymous donor(s) from the SCGOP two months to fund the delegate registration fees for the GCGOP? (after the fact)
- Where is the check of the anonymous donor? And can it be verified as an anonymous donor?
- Is this really how the GCGOP and SCGOP handles large sums of money?
- Could this ‘anonymous donor’ money actually be money laundering?
- Again, why did it take two months before the ‘anonymous donor’ money showed up?
- Will there be another GCGOP officer election in light of the Special Committee findings? And, who will make that determination?
- Were those individuals in positions of GCGOP and SCGOP leadership given the opportunity to review or sanitize the Special Committee Report before it was released?
- Will the GCGOP authorize an additional committee to make recommendations and take action?
- Will there be a change(s) in the SCGOP rules that prevent and stop the last-minute delegate registration practice when there has been no prior Republican Party involvement from those registering?
- Why were the names redacted on Form 1?
- Should Republican members involved in the GCGOP political process be allowed to have their names kept secret from some members and not others?
- Why weren’t the list of delegates (with complete information) provided to all GCGOP officer candidates for solicitation?
- Why were local area churches a primary source of solicitation?
- What churches were involved in the solicitation efforts?
- Were church members told who to vote for?
- Were church offices used as depositories for delegate registration forms?
- Who are the “agents” of the Republican Party who solicited local churches?
- Did these churches and the Republican Party agents operate within IRS tax-exempt criteria?
- Were these churches put in jeopardy regarding IRS rules?
- Was the integrity of pastor’s put in jeopardy?
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
Thus far, more questions than we have answers arise as a result of this Special Committee Report. In our opinion at The Standard we believe this report is a shallow and cursory representation of all of the facts surrounding the GCGOP officer election—by design. Unless, and until, the GCGOP and SCGOP answer all of the relevant and pertinent questions, we will never know the truth. 
Visibility, transparency, and open book accounting are the cornerstones of election integrity. There are simply too many unanswered questions from the GCGOP and SCGOP firewall. We can and must do a better job monitoring our system of elections and providing the oversight needed to ensure full integrity. Greenville County Republicans should not be satisfied with the Report from the Special Committee.
Chairman of the Greenville County Republican Party, Jennifer Black, has called a special meeting for tonight, Tuesday, July 6th at 7pm at the Hilton Hotel in Greenville, to address many of these issues. Hopefully this meeting will bare more details as to what the Committee Report says and lay bare actual facts. We understand that Delegates will be allowed to make comments and ask questions. Ask the hard questions!
What we see tonight nobody knows, but questions like those above and more must be asked to get to the truth. If fraud is found, resignations should be demanded immediately and new elections swiftly conducted within 45 days.
If we expect to retain our country we must ferret out every semblance or appearance of wrong doing or impropriety. And that starts on the local level!
We plan to livestream the event tonight at one of two places:
YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLyW7ho5NmRdWxRMI9I3OQ
Rumble at: https://rumble.com/c/c-903835
Make your comments below and consider supporting The Standard!
Michael Reed is Editor and Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online, and TheStandardSC YouTube channel where many video reports may be found.
We at The Standard put our necks on the line to report and bring news to you on sometimes “touchy subjects” others would prefer remain ‘behind the curtain’. Support Independent journalism! The Standard does not have billion dollar corporations or political bosses directing what we can and cannot print in our news. We print what people really want to know! And that information is more critical now than ever! You know how important it is to get proper news information—support that information source!
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Excellent article Michael thank you for exposing the darkness to light… it’s hard to find an honest journalist nowadays and you are one of the few and far between keep it up
Pamela
Director SC women for Trump, Columbia chapter
I’m heading to tonight’s meeting. Should be interesting.