On the eve of the state Democratic Party convention in Columbia, campaign consultant and former Georgetown County Republican Party Chairman Tom Swatzel Friday sent a statement to candidate for state Democratic Party chairman Phil Noble, taking Noble to task for a blog post Thursday praising a new Democratic Party rule that will still force Democratic convention delegates this weekend to identify themselves by name when voting for party officers. “Phil, you claim – apparently with a straight face -- that a new Democrat Party ‘reform’ requiring that all convention ballots must be signed to be counted will prevent the voter intimidation and strong arm tactics you admit rank and file Democrats have had to endure at their past conventions,” Swatzel said. “The obviously misleading nonsense of such a claim shows just how out of touch current Democrat Party bosses and even alleged ‘reformers’ such as you are with the actual democratic values of South Carolinians.”
Swatzel pointed out in his statement that “consistent with the state Democratic party’s own internal intimidation tactics, party officials last year opposed a state constitutional amendment – supported by 86 percent of voters nonetheless on the November ballot -- that constitutionally guaranteed South Carolinians the right to vote by secret ballot when voting in the workplace on whether to be represented by a labor union.”
