WPDE-TV has this story about the attempts by some of the Democratic and Republican Party candidates who were kept off primary ballots to petition their way onto the November ballot as independent candidates. The film features one such candidate going door-to-door. The story says after the candidate’s first 30 minutes, he had gathered 3 signatures and had 957 to go.
As noted in earlier posts about the South Carolina ballot access snafu, South Carolina is tied for having the most difficult independent candidate petition requirements in the nation, for legislature and county partisan office. For those offices, the law requires 5% of the number of registered voters. South Carolina has never had an independent candidate on the ballot for U.S. House, even though the U.S. House requirement is capped at 10,000, which means the requirement is approximately 2.7% for U.S. House. Nor has South Carolina ever had an independent candidate on the ballot for statewide office, other than president. The statewide independent petition is also capped at 10,000.
Although the law is unclear, there is a plausible reason to believe that South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties could nominate some of these candidates if they wish to. South Carolina’s ballot-qualified minor parties all nominate by convention, not primary.
The statute that requires candidates to hand over their statement of economic interest at the same time they file their declaration of candidacy applies to both primary and convention nominations.
Also the Green Party state convention was April 28.
The original case was filed against the Democratic and Republican parties and the state election commission, to keep the candidates off the primary ballot. Conceivably there could be additional litigation to keep candidates off the general election ballot.
Some of the other minor parties haven’t had their state conventions yet. It is possible the Working Families Party will try to nominate some of these candidates.
I love this story! It shows the Republicans and Democrats in South Carolina what it is like to try to run as a third party candidate. Maybe after this fiasco they will lessen the requirements to run as independents because they will never know when they will be the ones running as independents.
#3 I don’t think so, but it would be nice.
While in some ways I feel for those candidates who got ousted off the primary ballots, at the same time it is somewhat “poetic justice” to see these major party boys get a taste of what we real independents have had to endure for decades just to get on the general election ballot. Maybe it might make them more sympathic to our plight, but I’m not holding my breath.