Written by Skylar Laird, SC Daily Gazette.
The former director of the State Election Commission misrepresented a more than $30 million contract, worked with other staff members to falsify documents and lie about them, and misused funds for personal reasons, the commission chairman recently claimed.
The commission voted 3-2 last month to fire then-Director Howard Knapp, followed soon after by the firing of his deputy director and the resignation of the agency spokesman, who Chairman Dennis Shedd claimed were in cahoots with the former director. At the time, Shedd said the decision came from a desire for different leadership.
Since Knapp’s termination, more information has come to light, Shedd said.
“This agency, we found out, has become a toxic and perhaps a hostile work environment under (Knapp’s) leadership,” Shedd said.
Reached by the SC Daily Gazette, Knapp referred questions to his lawyer, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the lawyer for deputy director Paige Salonich.
Knapp and Solonich are under investigation by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division for wiretapping, a spokeswoman said. SLED is also investigating Knapp, who led the agency since 2023, for unspecified misconduct in office.
The Office of the Inspector General is also looking into the agency’s work under Knapp’s leadership, Inspector General Brian Lamkin told the commission Wednesday.
Shedd declined to give more information on the falsified documents. Nor did he provide any more detail on Knapp’s alleged misuse of public dollars and equipment, though he suggested that was at least part of the SLED investigation.
After Knapp’s firing, the interim director was instructed to investigate two other employees: Salonich, who was also Knapp’s “very close friend,” and spokesman John Michael Catalano, Shedd said. He claimed Salonich and Catalano worked with Knapp to produce false records of conversations and lie about it.
Catalano told the SC Daily Gazette he resigned effective Friday but declined to say much else.
“I’m deeply grateful for my time there, but it was time for me to move on,” he said in a statement, adding that he’s not involved in any investigation by SLED or attorney general’s office.
Salonich was fired Sept. 22, following nearly a week of unpaid suspension, after raising her voice at agency leadership, using profanity, making disruptive remarks and placing an unauthorized device in a confidential meeting, according to her termination letter. Catalano resigned Friday, without giving a reason in his letter, which was provided to the SC Daily Gazette.
Salonich is suing the commission, claiming that someone working for the commission leaked intimate information about items found in her work desk to the press. The agency has not responded to the lawsuit, which was filed Sept. 30 in Richland County.
One of the commission’s five board members, Linda McCall, also resigned her post Sept. 22, saying she was not able to focus on the work because of personal conflicts, “as well as what went on with the ousting of the Director at our last meeting,” according to her resignation letter.
The letter did not elaborate as to what she meant, and she did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment.
None of the recent turmoil has any effect on the state’s elections, Shedd emphasized.
The most pressing issue facing the commission is an approximately $10 million bill for ballot scanners due Sept. 30 that the agency has yet to pay. Legislators included nearly $11 million in the state budget for the upgrades, about a third of the total price, but the agency won’t get that money until February, Shedd said.
One-time allocations approved in the budget are usually dispersed to agencies in the fall. But this year, the Legislature put in a directive to hold off until Feb. 20 just in case the economy went south and last year’s surplus would be needed to cover a shortfall. (As of this week’s revenue update for the first quarter, collections remain above expectations.)
Commissioners approved a contract last year to purchase more than 3,200 ballot scanners ahead of the presidential election. At the time, however, commissioners believed the commission would pay $28 million, that legislators had agreed to include the full amount in their spending plan for the year, and that anything not appropriated would be paid for by the state treasurer’s office, Shedd said.
That was not the case, Shedd said Wednesday.
When Knapp sent the final contract to the treasurer’s office, it was for $32 million. The treasurer signed the agency up for a program that provides low-cost financing to upgrade state agencies’ equipment, but the commission remains on the hook for paying it back, Treasurer Curtis Loftis told commissioners Wednesday.
Shedd didn’t know why the contract ended up being $4 million more than what commissioners anticipated, he said. When he asked the other three commissioners whether they recalled Knapp mentioning the increase in price, they all shook their heads.
The agency needs to come to some sort of agreement with the bank financing the loan before costly monthly penalties begin to mount, or before the bank moves to repossess the voting equipment, Loftis said.
“It sounds like a bigger problem than it is,” Loftis told the commission. “It’s just a mismatch.”
The bank is willing to move the due date back to February, but Shedd said he didn’t want his name on the agreement Knapp penned. The commission instructed interim director Jenny Wooten to come up with a solution with the bank that will allow the commission to postpone payments without signing the original contract.
The agency is asking legislators for $25 million to cover the remainder of the cost, plus any other costs that come up, in the coming state budget, Wooten said.
While the next fiscal year doesn’t start until July 1, 2026, the budget process begins with agencies sending in their requests this fall.
The firings were unrelated to an agreement in the works between the state and the Department of Justice to release voter information, Shedd said. Knapp and commissioners agreed the agency needed to do everything in its power to protect private voter information while also complying with the federal government, he said.
The agency is still waiting for a template of an agreement from the Department of Justice to continue discussions, Shedd said.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. SC Daily Gazette maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seanna Adcox for questions: [email protected].