This article says that the South Carolina Election Commission’s spokesperson Chris Whitmire believes there is no likelihood that the Election Commission will remove James Smith, the Democratic nominee for Governor, from the November ballot.
First, the Libertarian Party state convention didn’t reject him; only the party state committee rejected him. Second, the Libertarian Party doesn’t have its own nominee for Governor.
So, although South Carolina law continues to say that someone who seeks the nomination of two parties, yet fails to capture both nominations, can’t be any party’s nominee, a little bit of wiggle room has now been introduced into the system. Thanks to Dave Gillespie for the link.
EXACT law text involved ???
— esp. re *the [SC LP] party state committee rejected him* —
surely to be noted by the Elephants.
So, could the Libertarians hold a snap convention, place Smith in nomination, but nominate someone for governor, and thus disqualify the Democrat?
DEADLINE LAST SECOND RUSH TO DISQUALIFY HACKS IN OTHER PARTIES ???
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One more MORON State full of MORON HACKS —
due to Civil War I ??? —
too many SC folks with brains got killed off in 1861-1865 ???
How did the SCLP end up with no candidate for governor? Was it a strategic decision or just no one stepped up? I see they have candidates for state legislature so I assume it’s not a ballot access issue.
The South Carolina Libertarian Party has been on the ballot continuously starting in 1980 and has no ballot access problems. But more times than not, it doesn’t run for Governor, although it did in 2014 and 1998.
Thanks for the answer. I guess SC is not one of those states where running statewide candidates is essential to have any chance at maintaining access.
Still seems like an odd choice.
In South Carolina, any ballot-qualified party can maintain its status by simply running at least one nominee every four years. It doesn’t matter how few votes it gets.
Also South Carolina lets parties change their names. When the Natural Law Party, which had been on in South Carolina, decided to cease to exist, its South Carolina officers kindly told the Green Party (which was not on the South Carolina ballot) that the Natural Law Party would change its name to the Green Party and then hold a state convention and let all the Green Party activists become the state officers. So the Green Party never had to complete the 10,000-signature petition in South Carolina.