SC Election Commission fires executive director

COLUMBIA — The governing board of South Carolina’s elections agency voted Wednesday to remove its executive director.

In a 3-2 split vote, the commission fired Howard Knapp out of a desire for new leadership, according to a statement by Chairman Dennis Shedd.

Shedd also said the decision was “unrelated to the conduct of any election in South Carolina.”

“The Commission’s leadership and staff remain dedicated to ensuring South Carolina’s elections are accurate, secure, and accessible,” Shedd said.

The commission declined to make any further comment.

Knapp’s firing, effective immediately, comes amid a lawsuit trying to stop the Election Commission from providing the information of about 3.3 million registered voters to the U.S. Department of Justice over privacy concerns.

In an opinion earlier this month, the state Supreme Court overruled a circuit court’s pause on providing that information, clearing the way for the commission to begin handing over names, birthdays, addresses, driver’s license numbers and final digits of Social Security numbers.

Knapp was named the state’s chief election official in 2022 and confirmed by the state Senate in 2023. He earned an annual salary of $150,000.

Knapp also remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, according to agency spokeswoman Renee Wunderlich.

In March 2024, SLED launched the investigation into unspecified allegations of misconduct at the request of the state attorney general’s office.

The commission appointed Chief of Staff Jenny Wooten as interim executive director.

Three of the five commission members, including Shedd, Clifford Edler, and Scott Moseley, voted in favor of Knapp’s termination.