The U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th circuit, has set a briefing schedule in South Carolina Green Party v South Carolina Election Commission. All the briefs will be in by October 30. The case concerns the constitutionality of a South Carolina law that says if one party has already nominated its candidate for a particular office, and then that nominee tries and fails to get the nomination of another party, then the first party is no longer able to run that candidate in the November election. In the particular incident which triggered the lawsuit, the Green Party nominated Eugene Platt for the legislature. Later, Platt tried to get the Democratic nomination as well (South Carolina permits two parties to jointly run the same nominee). Because Platt tried to get the Democratic nomination and failed, the Green Party was told that it couldn’t run Platt as its own nominee.
Richard: Does the law say that the first party to nominate the candidate must be a minor party?
Or could a candidate who wins a major party’s primary and THEN runs unsuccessfully for a minor party’s nomination be disqualified as the major party’s nominee?
Of course, it could be that SC’s minor parties never nominate after the major party primaries.
The law is neutral between major and minor parties. But the scenario you suggest wouldn’t happen. Someone who won a major party primary wouldn’t be motivated to then seek a minor party’s convention nomination. And the convention couldn’t force him or her to seek the nomination. If the candidate hadn’t submitted an advance declaration of candidacy for that particular minor party, the minor party convention couldn’t bring up his or her name at the convention for possible nomination. Someone can’t be nominated at a convention against his or her will.
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I think there are candidates who would seek minor party nominations after winning a major party nod (if the timeline allowed for it). The idea is to get as much support as possible and getting votes from multiple party lines is a plus.