On June 9, Tom Ervin, a former Republican state legislator, submitted over 20,000 signatures to qualify as an independent candidate for Governor of South Carolina. The state requires 10,000 signatures. Assuming the petition is approved, Ervin will be the first independent gubernatorial candidate to appear on a South Carolina government-printed ballot.

South Carolina did not use government-printed ballots until 1950, far later than any other state. Other states that have never had an independent candidate for Governor are Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Delaware, Michigan, and New Mexico did not permit independent candidates for any office until 1976, when Eugene McCarthy sued all three and won all those lawsuits, and forced the state to implement procedures for independent candidates.

On June 9, Rasmussen released a poll for the South Dakota U.S. Senate race. Larry Pressler, the former Senator who is running as an independent, is still in third place, but he is gaining and is at 18%. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.

Timm Herdt, state editor of the Ventura County Star and author of a weekly politics column that is distributed nationally by Scripps Howard Syndicate, says in this column that California’s Proposition 14, the top-two system, should be repealed. Herdt notes that he had supported it when it was on the ballot in June 2010.

Herdt does not mention the effect Proposition 14 has had on California’s minor parties, but he does point out that the system has not been kind to the state’s independent candidates. Thanks to Rick Hasen for the link.