Both Democrat and Republican state lawmakers will file a motion of clarification Thursday morning regarding a SC high court decision that knocked dozens of candidates off the primary according to State Representative Alan Clemmons (R-Myrtle Beach), chairman of the house election law committee.
At least 80 candidates won't be able to appear on the ballot for South Carolina's primary June 12th because of missing paperwork, South Carolina's highest court says.
The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that candidates should have filed financial paperwork when they filed to run for office in March.
This is the first year for a new system for candidate filing. Under the new system, candidates had to file economic interest documents online with the state Ethics Commission by March 30th. The forms include information like income and any lobbyists in the immediate family. Many candidates said they didn't know they were required to file the form, and weren't notified by the party.
Two Lexington County voters sued the state Democratic and Republican parties and the South Carolina Election Commission, questioning the eligibility of a few candidates. But the justices suggested several times that a ruling against those candidates would apply to anyone who didn't submit both sets of documents. And now impacts candidates across the state.
Wednesday, the Election Commission issued this statement:
"Candidates who did not properly file Statements of Economic Interests (SEIs) during the March filing period may not have their names placed on Primary or General Election ballots, according to a ruling today by the S.C. Supreme Court<http://www.judicial.state.sc.us/opinions/displayOpinion.cfm?caseNo=27120> .
Under order of the Court, the political parties must provide a list of candidates who properly filed SEIs to the state and county election commissions by noon, Friday, May 4th. An updated list of candidates will be posted at scVOTES.org http://www.scvotes.org after noon on Friday."
Now the work begins to revise primary ballots. There's no deadline by law, but county election commissions normally have absentee ballots available for voters around 30 days prior to the date of an election. The state election commission and county election commissions say they plan to be "working diligently" over the next two weeks on absentee ballots.
The state election commission says in the meantime, voters who plan to vote absentee by mail are encouraged to request an absentee application and return the application. Ballots will be mailed when available. Voters who wish to vote absentee in person should wait to go the voter registration office until ballots are available. Voters should check locally on absentee ballot availability.
Clemmons says he knows for sure house districts 105, 104, and 56 will be affected by the state supreme court decision. He thinks it will be much more than that though.
"It's going to make an already confusing election cycle chaotic," he said.
With new district lines drawn for county council, school board, state house, state senate, and Congressional elections, as well as a special election for old district lines being held on the primary, Clemmons says he hopes the motion for clarification will answer several issues.
"For example, if a disqualified candidate results in a party not having a candidate on the ballot, will that trigger to reopen? We're hoping the court will clarify that tomorrow." Clemmons said.
He adds the language specified filing had to be with the paper statement of economic interest form. Meaning, if anyone filed electronically, instead of in person, even if it was earlier, would be disqualified.
"We're hoping that filing electronically with the ethics commission is good enough," Clemmons said.
The AP contributed to this report.
