The politician who lost to mystery man Alvin Green in the S.C. Democratic primary for U.S. Senate has asked party officials to throw out Green’s June 8 victory.

There is a cloud over Tuesday’s election. There is a cloud over South Carolina, that affects all of our people, Democrats and Republicans, white and African-American alike,” Vick Rawl said in a statement posted to his website Monday. “At this point, the people of our state do not have the basic confidence that their vote will be counted.”

Rawl, a retired judge and former S.C. lawmaker, was expected to win his party’s nomination handily. Instead, he lost 59 percent to 41 percent to a 32-year-old political unknown who was kicked out of the U.S. Army, has a felony arrest record, and didn’t campaign or even put up a website.

The Democratic Party's 92-member executive committee plans a hearing Thursday to consider Rawl’s request that the results be overturned.

The strange circumstances surrounding Tuesday’s vote require a thorough investigation,” Rawl said in his statement. “For better or worse, this protest process is the only platform currently available for that investigation.”

Give Green’s criminal history, some state Democratic leaders have asked him to withdraw step aside. Others, including U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat on Capitol Hill, have called for an investigation to determine where Green, who is unemployed, got his $10,000 filing fee.

Green has said he saved his Army salary for two years to accumulate the money.
 

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