Former State Election Director Howard Knapp had a tumultuous career plagued with issues and investigations that we have spent the past three years covering. Little did we know, there was so much more beneath the surface. This is the complete overview of what we know to-date, as this story is still rapidly developing.
On September 17, 2025, South Carolina Elections Director Howard “Howie” Knapp was fired by the commission following a nearly five-hour executive session ending late Wednesday afternoon. The next morning, on September 18th, the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) showed up to the State Election Commission to “investigate allegations of wiretapping involving former executive director Howard Knapp and deputy director Paige Salonich,” as confirmed by FITSNews.
In January of 2025, Palmetto State Watch Foundation reported on the SLED’s investigation into Howard Knapp regarding allegations of misconduct. This investigation was requested by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office on March 29, 2024 which appears to still be ongoing.
This is just the most recent updates regarding both Howard Knapp and his subordinates. In this article, we are going in-depth to the buildup of these investigations, that track back YEARS. So let’s take a look at the highlights...and where it is headed.
Knapp Before the State Election Commission
In 2016, Howard Knapp was hired as a budget analyst for the executive budget office of the Department of Administration under Brian Gaines, who now serves as the current appointed Comptroller General. In 2018, Howard Knapp was named along with ten other men in South Carolina in a “child exploitation crackdown” that was known as Operation Southern Impact II. According to the Official South Carolina Attorney General Facebook page, on March 14, 2018, a 32-year-old Richland County man named Howard Knapp was arrested by the Richland County Sheriff’s Office and charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree.
As reported by Palmetto State Watch Foundation (PSWF) in January 2025, we obtained a GoFundMe page that was created by Howard Knapp’s sister-in-law on January 5, 2019 and was last reported on the internet by the Wayback Machine around June 2021. The description contains highly detailed information about Knapp’s arrest, charges, and several photos. It specifically states (bold added), “...three images of child pornography had been uploaded to the internet using an old gmail address you had not utilized in years. All of this based off of a “cybertip” from Google dating back to 2016. You are 100% willing to cooperate. YOU KNOW YOU ARE INNOCENT AND HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE.” You can see the rest of the GoFundMe page HERE.
As reported by investigative reporter Andrew Fauncher and confirmed through a FOIA obtained by Palmetto State Watch Foundation, Brian Gaines wrote in 2018 that Knapp lied about his whereabouts during a search warrant and stated that it was “related to child pornography being transmitted from his [Howard’s] home router.” This is very different from the family’s story than an old gmail that hadn’t been utilized since 2016...
It is important to note that many notable news publications published Knapp’s name and charges on March 16, 2018 but were scrubbed off of the internet around October 1, 2021, around the same time Knapp was appointed as Interim Director of the South Carolina Election Commission. Knapp’s attorney, Joe McCulloch told FITSNews that “After a very brief investigation, law enforcement found no basis for the accusations. A dismissal and expungement followed.“ You can read McCulloch’s full statement HERE.
Fraudulent 2022 Hand Count Audit Ignored
During the 2022 midterm elections, Palmetto State Watch uncovered a fraudulent hand count audit in Aiken County that was riddled with issues. The most glaring, of course, was the fact that the Aiken County Elections employees lied about conducting a hand count audit at a time that no one was inside the elections office. These employees signed official elections documents stating that the audit was held at 9am (when it was published to be held at 12pm) even though the camera footage we reviewed clocked the first employee entering the elections office around 10am. Palmetto State Watch co-founder Janis Price met with several elected officials and showed them the footage. No action (that we know of) was taken.
Two years later, on July 16, 2024, the Aiken County Election Director Cynthia Holland was federally indicted for embezzling at least $62,664 from the US Social Security Administration. Howard Knapp was an avid defender of Holland, advocating for a raise for her just one month prior.
Knapp Reports Concerned Citizens to DHS & SLED
During the 2022 primaries, concerned citizens reported that the security seals on the election tabulators were broken to the State Election Commission (SEC). These seals guarantee that the scanned ballots are not touched during the voting period. Across the state there were many documented instances of either missing or voided security tape on election machines, some of which our team personally witnessed or saw documented with photographs.
According to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response Palmetto State Watch obtained after the primary, these citizens that reported the broken seals to the SEC were reported to the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by then Executive Director Howard Knapp.
Jenny Wooten and Howard Knapp at a state election public hearing called by concerned citizens regarding proposed election regulations on August 16, 2023 (Janis Price/PSW)
Counter-Sued Citizens for Trying to Audit SC Elections
Under Knapp’s leadership, the State Election Commission received several lawsuits with citizens who requested previously FOIA-able information that provide a level of transparency in South Carolina’s election process. SC Safe Elections submitted one of those lawsuits that sued both Knapp and the Commission for denying Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for an audit reports using Cast Vote Records (CVR) following the 2022 primaries. Prior to September 2020, the SC SEC, like the majority of state election commissions, provided these reports to the public for analysis of election data. However, former South Carolina elections director Andino (Knapp’s predecessor) changed the definition of a cast vote record and decided the reports would no longer be provided to the public. Andino asked Attorney General Alan Wilson to provide an opinion supporting her thoughts and “facts” in August of 2020 of which Wilson complied.
This lawsuit lasted for almost two years and was eventually dismissed by Judge Daniel Coble despite Knapp, the State Election Commission staff, and their attorneys constant contradictions of basic election knowledge, including whether or not a Cast Vote Record even existed and what it looked like (the SEC has to use CVRs to audit any election...)
After the case was dismissed and the plaintiffs had spent around $100,000, the State Election Commission turned around and sued the grassroots group. To read more about the lawsuit, click HERE.
Extravagant Travel Expenses
Before Knapp became director, there was negligible out-of-state travel but once Knapp became director the spending was prolific. We could spend months combing through the out of control spending of the State Election Commission under Knapp, but to give you a snapshot, here is the travel budget of the State Election Commission from the past six years. Before Knapp took office, the SEC only spent around $17K-$20K. As of FY 2025, the SEC had spent $152,300.35. In June 2025 alone, the State Election Commission spent over $50,000 on out-of-state travel.
Paige Salonich and several other employees spent over $10,000 in a two-month period (mostly in May of 2025) on classes at a place called “Talent Development” that taught them how to be a better manager and was unrelated to election matters.
After reviewing the past two years of expenses, it is clear that the executive staff of the election commission have expensive hotel tastes, regularly booking luxury hotel rooms on short trips like this one to Washington DC. Over $3500 was spent at the Grand Hyatt Washington and over $1500 was spent at the Hyatt Regency Washington:
In April 2023, the State Election Commission spent $18,519.23 at the Embassy Suites Hotel. This was labeled in-state travel:
There were other several costly stays at Walt Disney World Resort. On April 5, 2024, the State Election Commission spent $10,210.60 at the La Vista Embassy Suite. The list goes on and on...
LAC Releases Scathing Report of SEC’s Operations
In January of 2024, the Legislative Audit Council (LAC) released a 194-page scathing report on the State Election Commission. This audit highlight numerous problems of the SEC under Howard Knapp--including but not limited to--mismanagement of elections, failure to keep sufficient accounting records, provisional ballot errors, sole source procurement violations, improper staffing (either understaffed or overstaffed), not using teams to conduct audits of elections, and many times not allowing public audits at all (a direct violation of SC State Constitution).
According to the report, the SEC spent nearly half a million dollars in FY 22-23 to add ten new SUVs to its fleet which resulted in 18 vehicles total with approximately 29 full-time employees as of June 30, 2023. For comparison, the LAC included a graph of the number of vehicles owned by state agencies:
The LAC noted that the SEC submitted “unsound justification” for the purchase of these vehicles. Furthermore, the LAC found that the original eight vehicles were underutilized (see graph below). When asked for an elaboration on the agency’s need for ten new SUVs, an agency official explained that the new vehicles were for the agency’s new audit division and equipment. The report noted, “The new audit division consists of 11 people--a director, two audit managers, and eight auditors--and the division is not expected to be fully staffed until the summer of 2023. The only election equipment this staff will be taking to the counties are laptops, tablets, portable scanners, pens, and paper.”
According to multiple internal sources, Howard Knapp’s wife, Katie Knapp, allegedly used at least one of the State Election Commission’s Tahoes for regular personal travel, including taking multiple jaunts down to the Citadel for family beach trips.
It is important to note that Howard Knapp used to work for the Legislative Audit Council (LAC) earlier in his career.
Knapp Circumvents Commission & SC House, Doubling SEC Budget
In March 2025, Palmetto State Watch Foundation reported on SEC Executive Director Howard Knapp’s request of over $43.2 million for the South Carolina State Election Commission for fiscal year 2025-2026, more than doubling the state budget the SEC received for FY 2024-2025.
(right to left) Jenny Wooten, Paige Salonich, and Howard Knapp presenting the $43 million budget request to the SC Senate Committee in March 2025 (Alaina Moore/PSWF)
In the request was an expense of $32 million to prematurely replace election machines. As previously we reported earlier this year, this request peaked our interest because in 2024, Knapp asked the SC Senate for extra funds to purchase new election equipment and was denied for FY 2024-2025. As noted by SEC meeting minutes from July 11, 2024, Knapp proposes that the commission should utilize the Master Lease Program to purchase the $25 million in new election equipment.
In the SEC meeting minutes from August 21, 2024, Director Knapp states that “there would be no payments until the following fiscal year and he had received verbal assurance that the agency will get the appropriations to fund the upgrade loan in the next fiscal year.” Knapp later mentions that the master lease agreement is interest free for a year.
Who gave Knapp verbal assurance? Following the publication of March’s article, we FOIA’d SEC communications regarding the Master Lease Program to find out who were the main players in this deal. We received over 1200 pages in response and have attached the full FOIA below.
Following the SC Senate’s denial of the Knapp’s first budget request in 2024, Research Director for the Joint Bond Review Committee at the SC Senate Rick Harmon emailed SC Senate Budget Analyst Quentin Hawkins about the Election Commission in the early hours of June 12, 2024 at 1:27am. In this email, Harmon outlines how the Election Commission can go around the legislature to attain funds for the machines and exactly how the payments need to be set up. “Howie has the authority to do this under the Election Commission statute, subject to approval of the Election Commission--no further approvals are required from the JBRC or SFAA.” Later that day, Harmon forwarded this email to SC Senate Finance Committee staffers. The following day, on June 13, 2024, Harmon forwarded the same email to Howard Knapp, telling Knapp “attached is the analysis for alternative funding. Let me know if you have any questions.” The following week, Knapp forwarded this email to Jenny Wooten McGill (page 1211).
On July 3, 2024, Knapp forwarded this information to the SC State Election Commissioners and CC’ed Jenny Wooten McGill for “the Commission’s consideration.” In this email, Knapp said that after the agency’s budget hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee but before their hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Knapp was “approached by our statewide voting system vendor, ES&S, about replacing all precinct ballot scanners (the DS200s) with the newer scanner with audit capabilities (the DS300). The company had also been approached by some counties that need additional voting equipment.” Knapp continues, “the total cost for the company to come to South Carolina and swap out/buy back all our existing DS200s with DS300 (including the price of the additional equipment) is $24.5M.” Knapp explains that even though the Senate’s budget only funded half of the cost at $12.5M, the Senate leadership asked Senate staff to draft a memo that explains how “the state could purchase this equipment through a lease to purchase option where the state would pay back the total cost within three fiscal years.” Knapp concludes that all the commission would have to do is meet (over a conference call) and take a vote. “...I’m happy to facilitate such a meeting and I would strongly recommend holding the meeting next week due to the timing of the possible implementation” (pages 1209-1210). That meeting took place on July 11, 2024. The commission voted unanimously to take no action on the proposal.
On July 11, 2024, Jenny Wooten McGill emails Knapp with the application to the master lease program two hours before this meeting took place.
On August 21, 2024, the SC State Election Commissioners unanimously voted “to authorize Knapp, as the Executive Director, to sign the master lease agreement on behalf of the agency.” There was no mention in the minutes of how much they authorized Knapp to spend.
Knapp Was Not a Lone Actor
On October 15, 2025, State Election Commission chairman Dennis Shedd stated that “Those papers Mr. Knapp signed--we never saw any of it. I have very serious concerns about what he did with our authorization.” However, the two people sitting right next to Chairman Shedd, remained silent even though they were instrumental in negotiating and signing this deal.
After reviewing this FOIA of communications, it became very clear that the Master Lease Program was facilitated by then-Chief of Staff Jenny Wooten on behalf of the SC State Election Commission. SEC General Counsel Thomas Nicholson was also instrumental in signing the contract. Howard Knapp’s main role seemed to only be communicating with the board and the SC legislature.
What Actually Happened with the Master Lease Program
On August 15, 2024, Jenny appears to takeover communication with Jackie Hipes, the Director of Debt Management Division from the State Treasurer’s Office.
I will spare you the next 1200 pages of back and forth of these individuals figuring out the details. Let’s fast forward to the signing of the actual contract and how it went down.
On September 26, 2024, around 6pm, Nicholson sends an email to Howard Knapp and Jenny Wooten with the subject header “Master Lease--CORRECTED signature pages” to which he writes, “Remember, we’ve got to get this done. Howie are you coming in at all tomorrow?”
Around 9am on September 27th, Knapp replies “The signed pages are on your chair.” There is no mention of different amounts.
Later that day, SEC General Counsel Thomas Nicholson sent an email to Alan Lipsitz (from Maynard Nexsen who the SEC hired to broker the deal) with a document that explained why the SEC is now requesting $28.8 million.
Twenty minutes after Nicholson emailed Lipsitz, he emailed Jenny Wooten and Howard Knapp that Nicholson will have the original signature pages ready for Alan Lipsitz on Monday morning (September 30, 2024). Nicholson adds, “ES&S’ final proposal document, was missing the second page that states ES&S’ grand total.”
September 30, 2024 was the day set for rates to lock on this deal.
On October 30, 2024, Jenny Wooten sends an email with a signed reimbursement request to representatives of TD Bank (the bank the SEC entered into contract with), three representatives of the Treasurer’s office (that assisted in facilitating the contract), and Nicholson and Knapp from the SEC.
It is unclear why the SEC changed their asking number from $24.5 million to $28.8 million. However, it would be a gross understatement to say Nicholson and Wooten had no knowledge. When Howard Knapp was asking the SC Senate to pay $32 million to pay back the loan the SEC took out, Jenny Wooten was sitting right behind him.
Chairman Shedd Amends Contract, Raises to $33 Million
Out of all of the board members, State Election Commission Chairman Dennis Shedd was the only one to express hesitancy to utilize the master lease program due to lack of support from the legislature as demonstrated by their refusal to fund Knapp’s request just a few months before.
It doesn’t appear Shedd was in the email loop that received copies of the final loan documents with TD Bank, although the Commission had voted on August 21, 2024 to allow the SEC to enter into a contract for the loan.
However, in an email dated August 12, 2024, Knapp clearly outlined to all of the Commissioners (including Shedd) that the loan was to be obtained from an outside bank. Knapp initially stated Bank of America, even though TD Bank ended up being the one selected for financing.
This past Monday, October 20, 2025, the SC State Election Commission held a special meeting to approve a deal for $33 million, which is $5 million more that what Knapp originally represented.
At this meeting, Shedd stated that he “had no idea this [contract] would be financed through a third party...If [Knapp] had come to us, I would have done it differently.” Why would the Commission blame the extravagant deal solely on Knapp, but then amend the deal to be $5 million more than originally represented?
To see Shedd’s complete comments, watch below:
Knapp’s Alleged Affair With Handpicked Deputy Director Paige Salonich
It has been rumored by numerous internal sources close to Knapp and the office that there has been an alleged ongoing affair between Knapp and one of his subordinates for a while now. However, evidence of this alleged affair were uncovered by FITSNews when they reported that several items were discovered in both Knapp and Salonich’s respective offices. According to their report, investigators found hundreds of Post-it notes containing explicit messages, at least one flash drive containing pornagraphy (7-8 were collected), and a packet of “Silk Deluxe” lube in Knapp’s office.
Howard Knapp presenting the State Election Commission’s budget proposal to the House Way & Means Constitutional Subcommittee on January 28, 2025 with Paige Salonich behind him (Alaina Moore/PSWF)
“In Salonich’s office, investigators found several items -- including a “Love Journal” reportedly containing pages of writing in Knapp’s handwriting which expressed his undying affection for her,” Will Folks reported. “At least a hundred Post-it notes containing similar messages--and several sexually explicit communications--were also found in Salonich’s office, also in Knapp’s handwriting.”
If that wasn’t enough...Folks describes the more shocking discovery in Salonich’s office: a device labeled “Weight For It” which is labeled as a “vibrating kegal exercise set” with multiple features...that you can read about in Folks’ report HERE.
SLED Investigates Wiretapping Allegations
On September 18, 2025, the day after Knapp was fired by the Election Commission board, The commission requested SLED to “investigate allegations of wiretapping involving former executive director Howard Knapp and deputy director Paige Salonich,” as confirmed by FITSNews.
According to several sources, Salonich was recorded on the agency’s security cameras placing a hidden, voice-activated digital recorder in a training room at the State Election Commission where the Commission also holds board meetings.
On the same day as the investigation was opened into wiretapping allegations, Paige Salonich was placed on unpaid suspension by the commission “pending the outcome of an internal investigation into malicious use of profane/abusive language to others and improper conduct or conduct unbecoming of a state employee.” On September 22nd, Salonich attempted to resign from the State Election Commission but was quickly informed that the SC SEC would not be accepting her resignation. The beginning of following day on September 23rd, Paige Salonich was terminated as Deputy Director.
Paige Salonich (Facebook)
The Agency’s Reasons for Firing Paige Salonich
The agency cited some of the reasons for firing Salonich, including (but as they stated, not limited to) “failure to maintain a satisfactory or harmonious working relationship with employees, including supervisors, malicious use of profane/abusive language to others, improper conduct unbecoming of a state employee, unauthorized use of state or agency property or equipment and misuse of state or agency property or equipment.”
The letter gives some context to the actions that led to Paige’s firing, outlining her outburst on September 17th, the same day Howard Knapp was fired by the commission as executive director. “Witnesses stated that...you raised your voice at leadership, used profanity, and made disruptive remarks such as declaring you were being “held hostage at your own (Explicit language) job” and “that you would never be a hostage in this (Explicit language) place again”. After leaving the conference room against instructions, you continued your outburst into public and employee workspaces, visibly upset, using inappropriate language, and drawing the attention of staff and visitors.”
In the next paragraph, the letter explains how Salonich was recorded on agency security cameras “placing an unauthorized device in the SEC training room...This act constitutes the unauthorized use and misuse of state property and raises serious concerns regarding trust, confidentiality, and workplace integrity.” This is the room where the election commissioners were discussing Knapp and eventually voted 3-2 to fire him as the State Election Director.
It has been alleged that Knapp had given Salonich numerous pay raises and promotions even within hours before his termination. Salonich was making a base salary of nearly $142,000 a year while only working for the commission since November 2021.
It’s beyond parody that Knapp and Salonich allegedly used a taxpayer-provided device to spy on taxpayer-funded election meetings, and it really gives you an idea of what has been most likely taking place at the State Election Commission for who-knows how many years.
To read the entire letter, check out the FOIA response obtained by FITSNews HERE.
SEC’s Next Poster Child: Jenny Wooten
Keep an eye out for who Jenny Wooten hires over the next few years as it appears this is a very controlled office and rightly so; why would the establishment allow the director position to be up to chance?
Not one person in charge of our elections are elected, they are appointed. How is the public supposed to trust their elections and election officials if it’s just a merry-go-round of the same corrupted officials?
The story with former director Howard Knapp seems to just be beginning. Will an indictment be next?
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Alaina Moore is Co-founder of Palmetto State Watch. Host of the Magnifying Glass Podcast. Contributing Editor with United Patriots Alliance
