On May 2, the Working Families Party of South Carolina attempted to submit 22,000 signatures, to qualify itself. The election law says the deadline is “six months before the general election”, which this year means May 7.

However, notwithstanding the state’s own law, and not withstanding a precedent from 1996, the South Carolina Election Commission claims the signatures should have been submitted in February 2006. In 1996, when the Natural Law Party submitted its South Carolina party petition in May, the state had said they were too late. The Natural Law Party had then sued in federal court, and at the hearing, the state had admitted that the Natural Law Party was right. Now, even though the South Carolina Election Commission knows about their stance in 1996, the Election Commission says if the Working Families Party wants to have candidates this year, the party must sue all over again.