Florence man arrested, charged with voter fraud

Morning News Online - Florence, Myrtle Beach | Florence man arrested, charged with voter fraud: "

Oct 7, 2004

By TRACI BRIDGES
Morning News

A Florence man was arrested Wednesday amid allegations he used people's names and personal information, including that of the mayor of Florence, on more than 1,000 voter registration forms and turned them in to the Florence County Voter Registration Office.
Terence Hines, 44, of 603 National Cemetery Road was taken into custody about 5 p.m. on charges of forgery and multiple counts of fraudulent registration or voting, 12th Circuit Solicitor Ed Clements III said.

Hines' arrest was the culmination of a State Law Enforcement Division investigation that began soon after Hines turned in two large boxes containing more than 1,500 completed voter registration forms to the Florence County Voter Registration Office last Thursday.

There were a lot of forms there and from the beginning, something just didn't seem right about them, Clements said. Florence County election officials began checking some of the names and quickly found out that a lot of the people were already registered and the information on the forms didn't match what was on the records, and several other people whose names were on these forms were deceased. None of the information added up.

The name and address on one of the forms happened to belong to Florence Mayor Frank Willis, which gave officials even more cause for suspicion.

"Yeah, a registration form for Frank Willis immediately sent up a red flag," Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Director Russell Barrett said, chuckling.

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