On May 8, the South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee approved two bills that, if enacted in time, would give relief to the 180 Democrats and Republicans running for state and local partisan office who are now off the June 12 primary ballots. The candidates did not file a Statement of Economic Interest on time. The bills, SB 1512 and HB 3392, would restore ballot access for candidates who did not file the statement by March 30, but who had attempted to file it by April 20. See this story.
The Senate will take up the bills on May 9, in the afternoon. The bills do not have unanimous support and the primary is only a month away, so it is difficult to tell what will happen. Some of the candidates are attempting to get on the November ballot as independents, but the independent petition requirement in South Carolina is extremely difficult. It is 5% of the number of registered voters, although it is capped at 10,000 for statewide office and U.S. House. None of the affected candidates are running for federal office; the requirement only pertains to state and local office.
It is even more stupid than that.
The deadline for declaring for office March 30, but the legal requirement is that the Statement of Economic Interest must be filed with the party official at the same time as the declaration of candidacy is filed. So if you file on March 23, you have to hand your SEI to the party official on March 23. He has 5 days to send to copy to the state ethics commission (or committee for legislative candidates). Meanwhile, all filings have to be electronic, so the paper copy given to the party official is useless except for complying with the law (and someone would have to go to Columbia to view a copy).
Many candidates were told to simply to file directly with the ethics commission, which makes them available online. The ethics commission also gave confusing information about the deadline for filing with them.
So there are several classes of candidates:
Those who filed a paper copy when they filed their declaration of candidacy.
Those who filed a paper copy at a different time but before the filing deadline of March 30.
Those who filed electronically before March 30.
Those who filed electronically before April 12.
The House bill would reset the primary date to 30 days after pre-clearance by the USDOJ.
As you would expect, things are getting heated in the legislature.
http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/09/2268947/sc-ballot-brouhaha-boils-over.html
Despite two holdouts, something will get passed in the Senate, but there is doubt about whether or not this will be law in time to fix the major party primaries.
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…and the SC Senate just killed the bill.
http://www.thestate.com/2012/05/09/2270246/senate-kills-bill-to-reinstate.html
Now relief is with the courts. Hearing tomorrow.