On April 22, the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed HB 3746, which would make it harder for independent candidates to get on the ballot. It would not let primary voters sign for an independent candidate; it would not let newly-registered voters sign for an independent candidate; and it would require independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy in February of election years.
The U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed a 3-judge federal court decision from New York in 1970, striking down a law that newly-registered voters couldn’t sign for independent candidates. And the 4th circuit (which includes South Carolina) struck down a February deadline for independent candidates to file a declaration of candidacy back in 1990, in Cromer v State, 917 F 2d 819. As to the restriction on primary signers signing for an independent, that would probably be held unconstitutional also. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that ballot access laws that are so difficult that they almost never get used, are probably unconstitutional. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate for U.S. House or U.S. Senate on a government-printed ballot. The state requires 10,000 signatures for an independent candidate for U.S. House.
The sponsor of HB 3746 is Rep. Alan Clemmons (R-Myrtle Beach). An identical bill, SB 590, is pending in the Senate.
South Carolina independent voters should start registering as write-in candidates and start voting for themselves. Free and open elections will not be held in the United States until independent voters get past the ballot access obstructionism of political parties, which will take some time. Parties have had since 1800 to write state laws to their advantage.
Robert B. Winn
This legislation is typical of many current and past bills introduced by Dems & Reps to keep the two-party stronghold on American politics. The time has come to make ballot access a “civil rights” movement. It’s time we independents & 3rd partisans have our own “March To Montgomery” or at least our “Bridge Crossing” (Edmund Pettis in Selma,AL)to get public attention to this 21st century discrimination. Unfortunately, very few American voters realize these discriminatory laws exist. But even sader, I doubt most independents & 3rd patisans (who claim they want “free and open elections”) are willing to “get arrested” or even “go to jail” in protest against two-party rule. So I say until we are ready to make the sacrifices that Black Americans had to make in the 60’s, we need to either “shut up” or stop the whining, get off our duffs, support compromise legislation that may not be what we really want or beleive we’re entitled to, but at least work to correct the unjust electoral system we have today in most states. Do I have takers, or do I have continued “whiners” and “excuse finders?”