COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina Election Commission is trying to figure out how a contract for new machines for voting for $28 million ended up costing the agency $4 million more.

The investigation into buying the 3,200 ballot scanners in 2024 has led to the firing of the head of the election agency and the second in command and cost a third staffer his job. And it isn’t the only problem. with the Election Commission, Chairman Dennis Shedd said at Wednesday’s monthly meeting.

There was a recording device hidden in the room before the commissioners met behind closed doors to discuss former Executive Director Howard Knapp’s fate and what Shedd called Knapp’s “very close friend and fellow employee” Paige Salonich.

Salonich was the agency’s deputy director before officials said she

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