Flickr user Joe Hall
Update December 22, 2011: Atlantic Beach didn't get the answer they were hoping for.
The result of the court hearing (reported below) was Horry County magistrate Bradley Mayers told Horry County and Atlantic Beach this was a personal property issue and they needed to sort things out on their own. If they can't he said he would preside over the case some time in the new year. WPDE had the easiest to follow write-up on this issue. Read it here.
The catch is Horry County needs all the voting machines they can gather for the upcoming GOP Presidential Primary.
Update December 17, 2011: Atlantic Beach isn't happy with Horry County's repossesion of the voting machines.
They took the matter to court to get the machines back so they could continue their investigation. The court hearing has been continued into this coming week. The Sun News has the details here.
First Report: It's been difficult to keep track of the Atlantic Beach politics this year.
In the summer, the Supreme Court replaced two council members based on a review of the 2009 election. Almost immediately after the new council members took their seats, there were mass firings of the police force and town administrators. Then election season came and the two removed members were elected back in and they immediately stated their intention to reverse the firings. But there were over 60 challenges to the initial election results including charges that the votes counted on the machines did not add up. The election commission held a spirited hearing where they reviewed the challenges. The end result was the initial results were maintained.
As a result of the challenges, Atlantic Beach has an open investigation and the iVotronic terminals were being held as evidence. They were advised to not to return them to Horry County. After repeated requests for the equipment, Horry County was forced to get a court order to repossess the property. The Sun News has more details here. WMBF has coverage as well including a PDF copy of the court order. That's all here.
