Candidates who intend to run in the South Carolina Republican Party presidential primary will be required to pay a filing fee of $40,000. There is no alternate method for getting on the ballot, even for candidates who say they don’t have the money.
Candidates file with the party, but, by law, the party gives $20,000 of that fee to the government to help pay for election administration. The party keeps the other $20,000 and the party need not pay any election administration costs for its primary.
The filing deadline for the Republican presidential primary is September 30, 2015. The party, not the government, chose that date. It is easily the earliest filing deadline for presidential primaries in any state. The next-earliest deadline is Michigan’s deadline of November 15, 2015. The South Carolina presidential primary will be February 20, 2016, so the deadline is 143 days before the primary, which seems excessively early. No other state has a presidential primary deadline that is more than 115 days before the presidential primary.
Marco Rubio has already paid the $40,000. See this story.
That is a fairly healthy chunk of change. I wonder who will pass? A dilemma for candidates who don’t expect to do well in SC. Pay the money and get lost in the decimal dust or don’t bother and get labeled weak and vulnerable by the media. Should be interesting!
Check out the new United Coalition with 15 candidates for President, including two Libertarians.
Democratic Andy Caffrey [Democratic] and myself James Ogle [Republican] are united in working with third party and independents, POTUS candidates.
Unity, cooperation and team work for a unifying voting system isn’t important to the insider party bosses because they want to be able to pick and it’s all about the money.
In major and minor parties alike (much to the contribution of their own failures), we are often deleted from facebook pages and blogs, censored in meetings and denied fair treatment at conventions because they are opposed to our message of unity, equality and fairness.
But voting and free speech is free so the United Coalition is able to have a 50/50 balance that others can only mimic with fake success.
See the candidates for POTUS in the “Outsiders” team and we welcome other candidates from offices in differing geographical levels and regions too, just contact us for more info.
http://www.usparliament.org
“The party gives $20,000 of that fee to the government to help pay for election administration.” Partisan primaries should be paid completely by the parties if they are “closed” or “partially closed”! The amount they are “giving” ($20K for one candidate, $300K for 15 candidates) does not nearly cover the cost of the counties or the state for administering such a primary!
All primaries in South Carolina are open. Any registered voter is free to vote in the Republican presidential primary in that state.
Alabama qualifying ends 6 Nov 2015.
It seems like the fee could be challenged under both Lubin v Panish and Bullock v Carter. The Republican Party is a state actor. South Carolina does not require a party to have a state-operated presidential preference primary.
The South Carolina Election Commission sets the filing fee, with a limit of $20,000. The party is required to send that on to the state. That $20,000 alone is likely unconstitutional.
The other $20,000 is for a party-assessed “certification fee”. But surely the administrative cost is nowhere near that amount.
South Carolina does not require the party to set the date of the primary until 90 days before the primary. The early filing deadline for candidates gives South Carolina flexibility to respond to other states trying to jump in front of them.
With early voting, South Carolina is irrelevant, so they may have to move their primary into January.
The voting will be held at the best country club in the state.
Prez nomination stuff becomes PUBLIC when the robot hacks in each State/DC certify the hack Prez/VP nominees for a listing on the PUBLC ballots.
Thus – ALL steps in the process are subject to possible legal attacks.
—
Abolish the timebomb E.C.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.