Glenn Garvin, a columnist for the Miami Herald, has this article about Gary Johnson titled “It’s not a two-man race anymore.”
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According to this story, 43 independent candidates for the South Carolina legislature submitted petitions by the July 16 deadline. South Carolina has probably never had this many signatures to check in any one election year, at any time in the past. South Carolina doesn’t have the initiative or referendum or recall, and candidates running in major party primaries don’t need petitions.
Independent candidates rarely qualify in South Carolina. No independent candidate for either House of Congress has ever appeared on a South Carolina government-printed ballot. Independent candidates for legislature need petitions of 5% of the number of registered voters, which is so severe, few candidates even attempt it. However, this year is different, because approximately 250 candidates who had expected to run in major party primaries were kept off the June 12 primary ballot, and therefore many decided to become independent candidates. In South Carolina, independent candidates appear on the ballot as “By petition” instead of “independent.”
On July 15, Jill Stein was interviewed on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”. Here is a link. The interview was held shortly after Stein had received the Green Party presidential nomination.
Neil Reiff, former General Counsel to the Democratic National Committee, has this article in Campaigns and Elections. He makes the case that the McCain-Feingold law imposes too many obstacles to state political parties, as well as local political parties, and that many restrictions in the McCain-Feingold law that injure such parties should be repealed. Thanks to Rick Hasen’s Electionlawblog for the link.
The deadline for independent candidates to submit petitions to be on the November ballot in South Carolina passed at noon on Monday, July 16. According to this news story, almost two dozen candidates had already submitted petitions by the time the story was filed, and it was filed several hours before the deadline. Check back here for an update once the final number is known.
South Carolina has only elected one independent candidate to its legislature in the history of government-printed ballots, but it seems somewhat likely that it will elect several this year. Almost 250 candidates who wanted to run in Democratic and Republican primaries this year were eliminated from primary ballots, and many of them resolved to then become independent candidates. South Carolina does not have registration by party so whether anyone is an independent depends strictly on the individual’s state of mind.