Atlantic Beach removes election commission after issues certifying mayoral race results

ATLANTIC BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - The election for mayor in a small Grand Strand town still hasn’t been decided or certified.

Atlantic Beach Town Council held an emergency meeting on Friday, where they moved to disband its election commission after challenges and recounts in its mayoral election this week.

“We’re going to have to follow up with information from our lawyers to see how we move forward from this, but as we speak here today, there is no election committee. It has been dissolved,” said current Atlantic Beach Mayor Jake Evans.

Evans, who did not seek re-election, and the Atlantic Beach Town Council claimed that Election Commissioner Joe Montgomery violated multiple state laws, including attempting to certify results without a court reporter and attending campaign events.

Montgomery said the allegations against him are false.

“All of those accusations are completely false. I’ve never attended a campaign rally other than to pick up food and leave,” Montgomery explained.

The commission met Thursday and attempted to hear challenges to ballots and certify the election.

Mayor Pro Tem Josephine Isom was declared the unofficial winner of the mayoral race on Tuesday. But after some contested ballots were counted on Thursday, it appeared as if her challenger, John David, won the mayoral race by one point.

Isom wrote a letter on Thursday afternoon protesting the certification of the election, and claiming that 19 provisional ballots were cast from residents who do not live in the town.

In her complaint, Isom claims four of those people who voted listed an address that is a building under construction and a certificate of occupancy has not been issued.

“The inclusion of these ballots improperly changed the outcome of the election,” Isom wrote in her complaint.

Meanwhile, David said something needs to be done to get the town back on track.

“I think this is the kind of politics that have happened in this town for years and people voted because they’re fed up with it. I think that we need help right now from the state because this kind of railroad justice is unjust to the people of Atlantic Beach,” David said.

Longtime residents said the drama that has come from this election is disheartening.

“To fire a commission in the middle of an election, it doesn’t smell right,” resident Ken McLaurin said.

“This bothers me. We only have four streets here. Why can’t we get along good enough to do that,” resident John Skeeter questioned.

As for what’s next, people on both sides of the issue said they’re not sure what the next steps are in order to certify the elections, but the town council said Horry County may have to get involved to determine who won the mayoral race.

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