Lawmakers rush to clean up election mess

By Jerry Salley  

MAY 11, 2012 9:00 a.m. (1)

In the wake of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision last week that effectively disqualified 180 candidates statewide from primary ballots, lawmakers are scrambling in Columbia to get most of the candidates reinstated.

The chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Larry A. Martin (R-Pickens) – whose own primary opponent, Rex Rice, was removed by the Supreme Court ruling – called an emergency meeting of the committee Tuesday morning, May 8, to discuss legislation to get the disqualified candidates back on their ballots. The committee voted to pass legislation that would allow all disqualified candidates back on the ballot, provided they had filed all of the necessary paperwork by April 20.

However, Judiciary Committee member Sen. Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) raised objections to the bill, effectively blocking it. Katrina Shealy, Knotts’ primary opponent, was one of the GOP candidates eliminated from the ballot.

Knotts’ move sparked what the Associated Press called a “heated exchange” with Roxanne Wilson, wife of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, outside Knotts’ office. Saying that Knotts owed an explanation to “every Lexington citizen” for his actions, Wilson followed Knotts into his office. The two emerged minutes later saying they had “made peace,” with Wilson kissing Knotts on the cheek. Mrs. Wilson’s sister, Suzanne Moore, a candidate for clerk of court in Lexington County, was among the candidates removed from the ballot.

The Senate’s next move was to circumvent Knotts’ objection by attaching the measure as an amendment to a House bill that has already been approved. At press time, the Senate was expected to consider the amended bill Wednesday morning.

Even if the legislation passes quickly, any change to South Carolina election law must be reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice – a process that can take up to 60 days, raising doubts that it can be completed by the scheduled June 12 primary date.

Meanwhile, Amanda Somers, candidate for Senate District 5, which includes parts of northern Greenville and Spartanburg counties, filed a lawsuit on Friday, May 4, challenging the ruling.

Citing “a set of Kafkaesque circumstances so bizarre as to be almost unbelievable,” the suit, filed by Columbia lawyer Todd Kincannon, calls the case “one of the strangest cases in the history of American election law.”

A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for the lawsuit Thursday afternoon in Columbia.

Kincannon argues the primary should be delayed because state election officials violated federal law by sending ballots to overseas and military voters that had only federal races on them.

“The ballots that they mailed out to military voters are not worth the paper they are printed on,” Kincannon told the AP.

In a separate lawsuit, Somers is also seeking to keep her own opponents, Tom Corbin and Wyatt Miler, off the District 5 ballot, claiming that they filed for the race improperly after Sen. Phil Shoopman withdrew from the race in mid-April.

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, May 2, the five justices of the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that candidates who did not file a paper economic disclosure statement at the same time they officially filed for office were not qualified to appear on primary ballots.

With the Court’s ruling in the case of Anderson v. S.C. Election Commission, 180 candidates statewide suddenly found themselves removed from the June 12 primary ballots.

Last Friday, the state Democratic and Republican parties both complied with the Supreme Court’s request to submit a list of certified candidates who had met the requirements. More than a dozen Upstate candidates for state and local elections from both parties were missing from those lists.

In Greenville County, all of the disqualified candidates were Democrats. State Senate candidates Jeff Dishner (District 8) and Ennis Fant (District 7); state House candidates Israel Romero (District 20), David Gahan (District 22), D.C. Swinton (District 23), Tony Boyce and Selden Peden (District 25) and Renita Barksdale (District 27); Dexter Reaves, candidate for sheriff; and County Council candidate Ralph Sweeney were all struck from the Democrats’ list.

In Spartanburg County, disqualified candidates include: Republican state Senate candidate Kerry Wood of Inman (District 11); Republican state House candidates Gaye Holt of Moore (District 34) and Jim McMillan of Lyman (District 36); Democratic House candidate John Lewis (District 31); and Republican County Council candidate Steve Collins of Woodruff.

Incumbents are exempt from the economic disclosure rules, since they already had disclosure statements on file.

In many cases, the candidates had filed their economic disclosures online, believing that a 2010 law directed them to do so. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the candidates must also follow an earlier law that explicitly requires a paper statement to be filed along with the candidacy papers, with the same elections official.

Greenville County Republican candidates were advised to bring a hard copy of the financial report with them when they filed, and thus remained on the GOP’s list of certified candidates. However, the ruling forced the state Democratic Party to remove 10 Greenville County candidates, who had not filed their paper financial statements.

“We fully appreciate the consequences of our decision, as lives have been disrupted and political aspirations put on hold,” the justices wrote in their decision. “However, the conduct of the political parties in their failure to follow the clear and unmistakable directives of the General Assembly has brought us to this point. Sidestepping the issue would only delay the inevitable.”

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