Atlantic Beach attorneys say privileged information about election protest shared with candidate John David
ATLANTIC BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) — Privileged information about a protest of November’s disputed mayoral election in Atlantic Beach was shared with candidate John David, attorneys told the town’s election officials on Wednesday.
The revelation came during an Election Commission meeting in which discussion about a “Required Recount of Ballots” and the “Certification of the Elections” appeared on the agenda. However, that did not happen.
McIver and commissioners Derrick Stevens and Carole Gore immediately went into a half-hour long executive session at the start of Wednesday’s meeting. When they came out, they tried to adjourn the meeting without additional discussion.
However, attorneys brought up the need to have a permanent chairman, and the commissioners followed up with a successful vote to remove the interim tag from Kenneth McIver’s title. The town has already asked Horry County officials to take over control of the town’s future elections.
After the vote on McIver, the attorneys asked for another vote so that information discussed during the executive session could be further discussesd in public. Stevens and Gore agreed; McIver did not.
During the discussion, it was pointed out that attorneys had received an email from David in March that contained information that was protected under attorney-client privilege between the attorneys and the commissioners about the contested election.
At that point in the meeting, the commissioners were asked to take a simple oath and each one was asked whether they were the source of the leak. All three said no they had not shared any privilged information with David.
Officials have yet to certify the results of the Nov. 7 election between David and Josephine Isom. Unofficial results showed that Isom, a town council member and mayor pro tem, defeated David 62-49. However, during a Nov. 9 meeting, 18 challenged ballots were approved during a certification hearing that swung the vote in favor of David, 65-64.
Prior to seemingly being elected mayor in November, David also ran for a vacant seat on the town council in January 2023. He received the most votes in a runoff election with Michael Isom, Joesphine Isom’s son, but was not able to take office until January because Michael Isom challenged his residency.
After the November election, the town council disbanded the election commission only to bring it back a little more than two weeks later and fire chairman Joe Montgomery. McIver, a former member of the committee, was later appointed as the acting chairman.
Another meeting is scheduled for April 3 to conduct the the previously postponed protest hearing on the election.
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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.
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