On March 10, a subcommittee of the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed HB 4732, which says that state government will pay for the presidential primaries of any party that polled at least 5% for president in the last election. Currently South Carolina is the only state in which the parties pay for administration of the presidential primary (although in 2012, the state shared the expenses with the parties).

Oddly enough, the bill still gives the parties the authority to set the amount of the filing fee, even though the filing fee would be paid to the government, not the parties. In 2012, the Republican Party charged a filing fee of $25,000 for presidential candidates who filed early and $35,000 to those who filed later. The bill also retains the freedom of political parties to set the date of their presidential primaries. Thanks to Rick Hasen for this news.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson will hold a hearing in Libertarian Party of Ohio v Husted, 2:13cv-953, on Thursday, March 13, at 2 p.m. This is the federal case over whether the Libertarian candidates for statewide office should be removed from the Libertarian primary ballot.

The state’s brief, filed on March 11, argues that the state’s interest in having each petition sheet show the identity of the circulator’s employer is to prevent corruption. The obvious question, though, is why the state’s interest in disclosure of campaign spending should not be placed on the candidate, rather than the circulators. If Ohio required the candidate to list his or her expenditures, that alone would satisfy the state interest in disclosure of campaign spending. As far as is known, no other state requires circulators to fill in a blank on each petition sheet identifying the circulator’s employer.

The state also says the law, requiring circulators to list their employers on each petition sheet, is six years old, and the Libertarian Party should have challenged it earlier.