State Rep. wants Horry election official fired

State Rep. Tracy Edge said the voting breakdown was intolerable and that Sandy Martin should be fired.

``I guess I'm just stunned because the crew in that office only has to do the job twice a year and they can't get it done,'' he said.

The county has had voting problems in every election, Edge said.

``I want her fired, I'm tired of it,'' he said.

With the nation watching, it is also embarrassing that Horry County could cause the primary results to be put into question, or force a call for a new election.

``Knowing just the pressure of the media and all the scrutiny,'' should be enough to force the election staff to make sure everything was operating properly, he said.

He said he was bombarded with calls from people who vote in North Myrtle Beach and other precincts in his district. Some places had no paper ballots, in violation of the law, and were using pieces of blank paper.

He said his mother-in-law was only the 12th person to vote at her precinct but was given a piece of paper and told there were no printed ballots.

Edge is a McCain campaign official, and he said the campaign heard about the difficulties and called him to ask if he would travel to Conway to find out what is wrong and if it could be fixed.

``Horry County was McCain's best county in 2000, and we expected it to be again, so this could be devasting,'' he said.