On May 2, the South Carolina Supreme Court unanimously ruled that over 100 candidates who filed in the Democratic and Republican June 12 must be removed from the ballot. They all failed to file a statement of economic interests. The case is Anderson v South Carolina Election Commission. It is possible the legislature will rush a bill through, which will still permit these candidates to run. The Democratic and Republican Parties may also ask for a rehearing, although it is unlikely the Court would change its mind at this late date.
Qualified minor parties in South Carolina all nominate by convention, and no minor party candidates are affected, as far as is known.
This is South Carolina. It is much more messed up than that.
The state ethics commission permits filing of the statement of economic interest (SEI) electronically, and apparently in the past candidates have filed directly with the state ethics commission. The law was passed in 1996 – and it is doubtful that all of the sudden 100 candidates are out of compliance.
There were instructions on the ethics commission website that implied a wrong filing date, and when it was corrected they set a belated deadline. This was when the lawsuit was filed.
The law says that when a candidate files a declaration of candidacy, they must file an SEI at the same time and with the same party official. The party official then forwards the SEI to the ethics commission, and the candidate’s name to the election officials for inclusion on the primary ballot.
The Supreme Court ruled that it didn’t matter if a candidate filed an SEI before the filing deadline for office.
An SEI in some cases consists of the name and phone number of the filer, along with statements that they don’t have substantial income from government entities, and don’t have real property that has benefited by recent public improvements nearby. And current public officials who have a current SEI on file (which they have to maintain) don’t need to include one when they file for re-election.
I don’t see that the law doesn’t apply to minor party candidates, who must also file a declaration of candidacy. In the case of the parties nominating by primary, the Supreme Court ordered that the parties determine pronto which candidates are to be removed from the primary ballots.
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SOUTH CAROLINA IS A TOTALLY SCREWED UP STATE , WORSE THAN ANY I HAVE WITNESS IN A LONG TIME
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