A Beaufort rally claimed fraud in the 2020 election. A city election official planned it
A member of the nonpartisan Beaufort Elections Commission appointed by City Council to certify Beaufort’s elections was the main organizer of a political rally held in Beaufort last week that sought to “#FightBack” and audit the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Helen Spalding, appointed in February to a six-year term on the city’s elections commission, shared multiple videos and photos referencing the rally on her social media pages. A flier advertising the event, also shared on social media, listed Spalding’s email address for RSVPs.
A similar event is scheduled for Sept. 11, although it’s unclear whether the same people are organizing it.
Spalding’s Trump-fueled social media posts, and her involvement with the far-right rally, have prompted some City Council members to suggest she has a conflict of interest and to plan to discuss it in executive session at the council’s next meeting. The Aug. 30 rally also sparked a blistering response from the city’s local Democratic club.
Spalding did not return a call for comment Thursday.
The Beaufort Elections Commission is a nonpartisan, two-person board in charge of certifying the city’s municipal elections. The board also assists at polling places during elections and meets twice a year, according to the city’s website.
Beaufort City Council appointed Spalding and Darrell Wallace in February, and both were tasked with certifying the results of the city’s special election in March.
“To have someone that’s responsible for certifying the elections in this city questioning the certification of the last election and perpetuating this lie just casts doubt and will continue to cast doubt on the validity of our election process,” Beaufort City Council member Mitch Mitchell told a reporter Thursday.
Among the people advertised to speak at Monday’s “Audit the SC 2020 Vote Rally” at Olde Beaufort Golf Club: Pro-Trump lawyer and new Beaufort County resident Lin Wood, who was recently sanctioned for trying to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory in Michigan; Seth Keshel, who crafted a widely shared and bogus report claiming that former President Donald Trump actually won seven key states that were called for Biden; Jeff Davis, Greenville County GOP chair and a leader from the far-right mySCGOP.com; and Laurie Zapp, founder of the conservative nonprofit Engage the Right.
Spalding’s social media pages, where she describes herself as a “Conservative Activist,” include false claims about voter fraud during the 2020 election and videos and pictures supporting people who argue the same. In one video, Spalding describes how she became a Republican state delegate.
A photo of Monday’s rally posted to Spalding’s Instagram page includes the abbreviation “WWG1WGA” in the caption — a frequent rallying cry for supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory. The abbreviation stands for “where we go one, we go all.”
“If you don’t know by now, I am a huge Trump supporter who believes that the 2020 election for the president of the United States was stolen from us by cheating,” the commission member says in a May 2021 video posted to her YouTube channel.
Despite these claims, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud affecting the outcome of the 2020 election, fact checkers say. It’s also worth noting that former President Trump handily won both the state of South Carolina and Beaufort County in 2020, according to SCVotes.org.
Called Wednesday, Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray said he learned about Spaldings’ involvement in the rally Monday evening and was “disappointed.” He said the City Council will likely meet in executive session to discuss the issue at its next meeting on Sept. 14.
Mayor Pro Tem Mike McFee, who was not on council when Spalding was appointed, told a reporter Thursday that the city’s legal staff is researching whether the rally posed a conflict of interest for Spalding. Council member Neil Lipsitz said the council would discuss Spalding’s involvement at its next meeting, but declined to discuss specifics.
Council member Philip Cromer said he didn’t want to speak about the issue specifically until city staff has time to research it.
“This is a sticky wicket, and there could be some First Amendment issues involved in this,” he said.
Council members Mitchell, Murray, McFee and Cromer all agreed, however, that the elections commission is a non-partisan board.
“I have no problems with her being a Trump supporter. She can register those desires at the polls,” Mitchell said Thursday.
However, “Every investigation or board that has looked at the results of the 2020 election said there was no fraud. To keep perpetuating this lie just seems ridiculous to me.”
‘Disturbing news’
Local rallies supporting false claims about the 2020 election are likely by design.
On Thursday, ProPublica reported that the myth about the 2020 election being stolen has inspired thousands of Trump supporters to take over the Republican Party at the local level, “exerting more partisan influence on how elections are run.”
After the failed insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon called on his podcast listeners to “seize control of the GOP from the bottom up. Listeners should flood into the lowest rung of the party structure: the precincts,” ProPublica reported.
In South Carolina, the precinct strategy contributed to a surge in local party participation, ProPublica reported. In 2019, 4,296 people participated. This year, 8,524 did, according to ProPublica.
Local residents, after learning about the rally from social media, have criticized not only Spalding’s involvement, but also the business that hosted the event.
Northern Beaufort County Democratic Club President Mike Bogle, in a statement to a reporter Thursday, referred to Spalding’s rally as “disturbing news.” He called her involvement a “blatant conflict of interest” that “should never have happened.”
Bogle’s statement also referenced a similar event scheduled for Sept. 11 at the Hilton Garden Inn Beaufort. Called Thursday, a hotel representative confirmed that the event, sponsored by the “Election Fraud & Audit Committee,” was on the schedule. However, the person could not confirm who is organizing the event.
“I don’t need to tell you how bad this all looks, so we as the Northern Beaufort County Democratic Club plan to do something about it,” Bogle’s statement said.
In his statement, Bogle described his club’s three-step response to the rally:
▪ Targeting the businesses that host the events. Bogle said he encourages Beaufort residents to let the companies “know they’re going to lose business if they continue to open their doors to this type of activity.”
▪ Bogle called on residents to try to “de-platform” Spalding from social media.
▪ Bogle said his group plans to contact Mayor Murray and demand that he remove Spalding from the elections commission.
If similar events go unchecked, Bogle said, people will move away, and tourists will no longer visit the area.
“None of these outcomes are desirable, so let’s stand up, speak out, and make sure that Beaufort city and county be the best version of itself,” the statement said.
This story was originally published September 5, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
