South Carolina

Articles about voting issues in South Carolina.

No new candidates allowed; primary ballots set | TheState.com

May 182012

The South Carolina Election Commission told the state Republican Party on Thursday that it effectively can’t put a challenger to Gov. Nikki Haley’s chief legislative opponent back on the June primary ballot. The commission said in an email Thursday the state GOP can’t recertify state Senate candidate Katrina Shealy, two weeks after decertifying her and other contenders. It noted the state Supreme Court set a noon May 4 deadline for the GOP and Democratic parties to submit their lists of candidates who properly filed financial forms, and that ruling must be heeded. Shealy was among some 200 candidates for offices statewide decertified for not filing correctly. ”To accept candidates after that would be in violation of that order,” election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire told The Associated Press. “The June primary ballots are set. Ballots have been printed. Voting machines have been prepared, and voters are voting.” Read More »

Senate approves bill to clear future election chaos | MidlandsConnect.com

May 182012

The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Wednesday that could head off the election chaos that is currently swirling throughout South Carolina. Earlier this month, a state Supreme Court ruling resulted in almost 200 candidates being tossed off June’s primary ballots after the court determined the political hopefuls did not properly file financial forms when filing to run for office. The Senate measure approved unanimously Wednesday would remove the Democratic and Republican parties from the filing process and synchronize the deadlines for incumbents and challengers to turn in financial paperwork. It does not apply retroactively, so it will not help candidates taken off ballots by the Supreme Court’s ruling. Read More »

Judges Throw Out Election Lawsuit | wltx.com

May 152012

A panel of federal judges threw out a lawsuit dealing with primary ballots sent overseas. Attorney Todd Kincannon argued that the state’s decision to send partial ballots to overseas voters was a violation of federal election law. The attorney says the state Election Commission was in violation of the Voting Rights Act when it opted to send ballots with only federal races on them to military and overseas voters. Read More »

Lawyer drops bid to reinstate candidates | TheState.com

May 152012

An attorney is abandoning his effort to reinstate nearly 200 candidates left off of June 12 primary ballots by a South Carolina Supreme Court decision, saying Friday he is focusing instead solely on allegations the state violated the Voting Rights Act in sending separate ballots overseas for federal and local races. “The court has ordered Amanda Somers to focus on the issues where she has clear standing. And that we will do,” Todd Kincannon told The Associated Press. “Amanda Somers is focused entirely on military absentee ballots from here on. It’s clear at this point the military absent ballot issue is about the only issue left in this election.” Kincannon filed a federal last suit last week on Somers’ behalf, saying the state Senate hopeful’s candidacy was thrown into question after state Supreme Court justices ruled that financial and candidate-intent paperwork must be filed simultaneously. Read More »

Lawyer drops bid to restore South Carolina ballot | AP/The Charlotte Observer

May 122012

An attorney is abandoning his effort to reinstate nearly 200 candidates left off of June 12 primary ballots by a South Carolina Supreme Court decision, saying Friday he is focusing instead solely on allegations the state violated the Voting Rights Act in sending separate ballots overseas for federal and local races. ”The court has ordered Amanda Somers to focus on the issues where she has clear standing. And that we will do,” Todd Kincannon told The Associated Press. “Amanda Somers is focused entirely on military absentee ballots from here on. It’s clear at this point the military absent ballot issue is about the only issue left in this election.” Kincannon filed a federal last suit last week on Somers’ behalf, saying the state Senate hopeful’s candidacy was thrown into question after state Supreme Court justices ruled that financial- and candidate-intent paperwork must be filed simultaneously. Read More »

Federal judges could decide to delay South Carolina primaries | Anderson Independent Mail

May 112012

A three-judge panel will meet next week to consider delaying South Carolina’s June 12 primaries in the wake of a state Supreme Court decision that removed nearly 200 candidates from ballots. U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie heard arguments Thursday from an attorney for Amanda Somers, who says her candidacy was thrown into question after justices ruled financial- and candidate-intent paperwork must be filed at the same time. Since Somers was ultimately allowed on the ballot, Currie questioned her ability to sue. The judge allowed a state Senate candidate from Edgefield who was tossed off, Republican John Pettigrew, to join the suit. Read More »

Federal judges could decide to delay South Carolina primaries | necn.com

May 112012

Ground gained to get 180 candidates back on primary ballot | TheState.com

May 102012

The Senate could vote as early as Wednesday to allow 180 disqualified candidates back on the June primary ballot.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure today that would allow any candidate who attempted to file an statement of economic interest by April 20 back on the ballot. The deadline was March 30. The state Supreme Court booted candidates last week who failed to file a hard copy of the statement. The Senate put the new measure on the fast track by amending it to already approved House bill. The move also overrode objections to changing the law from state Sens. Jake Knotts and Robert Ford that could have stalled efforts to reinstate the challengers in state and local races. Knotts’ decision led to a brief shouting match after the meeting with Roxanne Wilson, the wife of U.S. Rep, Joe Wilson and sister of Suzanne Moore, a candidate for Lexington County clerk of court who was ousted off the ballot. Read More »

No problems found in Atlantic Beach voting machines | CarolinaLive.com

May 082012

The voting machines Atlantic Beach town leaders refused to return to Horry County are now back in the county’s possession. The State Election Commission got the machines and conducted an audit, according to Horry County spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier. The commission said the Atlantic Beach Municipal Election Audit revealed no exceptions and no errors. The machines will be put back into rotation and will be used for future elections. Read More »

Hundreds of candidates removed from South Carolina ballots after court ruling | wsoctv

May 082012

Bob Cook is one of hundreds of political candidates in South Carolina wondering what to do next. The Lancaster Democrat was running for his first-ever political office, a state house district. ”I thought about it for a couple of weeks, and in January I decided to officially announce I was running,” Cook said. Since then, it’s been a seven-day-a-week job for Cook. Talking to voters, raising awareness of issues and hitting the campaign trail daily. ”You lay in bed at night, twelve or one in the morning and think to yourself, ‘What more could I do today?’” This week, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Cook and many other candidates could have and should have done more. Hundreds of candidates have been removed from ballots in races all over the state because of a technical error in how they filed certain papers. Read More »

How the 2012 primaries imploded | TheState.com

May 072012

After 30 years, Raye Felder stepped down from managing the insurance business she started so she could run for the S.C. House of Representatives. She filed for office on a Tuesday, signing her name on a piece of paper at a Starbucks in Fort Mill and sliding it across the table to Glenn McCall, chairman of the York County Republican Party. It was a happy moment because Felder was the only Republican to file for the seat and she would face no Democratic opposition in November. But when Felder handed that paper to McCall, she did not hand him a statement of economic interest, the form designed to let voters know if a candidate has any income or business dealings involving public money. She filed that form online a few weeks later, complying — or so she thought — with a new state law passed in 2010 requiring candidates to file the forms online. Felder was removed from the ballot Friday, following a state Supreme Court decision earlier in the week that says candidates must file paper copies of those economic interest statements at the same time as they file to run for office. Read More »

Supreme Court nixes request for rehearing of election case | Aiken Standard

May 052012

South Carolina’s Democrats and Republicans received some clarity on Thursday from the state Supreme Court on a ruling that both parties fear could mean most candidates challenging incumbents would be kept off ballots for the June primary elections – thereby possibly enhancing the re-election chances of most incumbents. Both parties and the State Election Commission asked the court to rehear a case over the filing of financial paperwork, writing that candidates filed those papers according to the Commission’s interpretation of the law and need more clarity on how the filings should be made. The court said it wouldn’t hold another hearing. Justices did clarify their previous ruling, explaining that candidates who file paper copies of their financial paperwork at the same time they file their candidacy can remain on ballots across the state. Read More »

Deadline Monday for South Carolina to say if implementing voter ID would be possible this year | GoUpstate.com

Apr 302012

A federal court has given the state of South Carolina until Monday to clarify whether it would be feasible to implement a statewide voter identification requirement in time for this year’s general elections. State elections officials have said that, in order to take appropriate steps to use the law for the Nov. 6 general election, the requirement that voters present government-issued photo identification at the polls must go into effect no later than Aug. 1 of this year. Now, it will be up to state Attorney General Alan Wilson to outline what steps the state would need to take to create photo voter ID cards and make sure voters know the rules in enough time for the general election. The deadlines for the state would be tight. But one of the three judges hearing the case said the speedy schedule is necessary if state officials want to be able to use the law — if approved — this year. Read More »

Justice Department: South Carolina voter ID law violates Voting Rights Act | USAToday.com

Apr 112012

South Carolina’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act and discriminates against minorities despite the state’s assertions to the contrary, the Obama administration says in new court papers. The U.S. Justice Department’s comments came in a 12-page document filed Monday with a District of Columbia court in response to South Carolina’s Feb. 7 voter ID lawsuit. Justice lawyers urged the judges to reject the state’s request for a declaratory judgment, which is a speedy decision by judges without a trial. The administration rejects South Carolina’s claim that the voter ID law “will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in their legal brief. South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office provided a copy of the brief Tuesday. Read More »

Bill would allow voters to register online | TheState.com

Mar 242012

A bill allowing South Carolina residents to register to vote online advanced Thursday. A House Judiciary panel approved the bill, which has been advocated as a way to save money and create a more reliable database of voter information. The full committee is expected to take it up next week. David Becker of the Washington-based Pew Center on the States said nine states already use the secure, online system, and three more are working toward it. The first was Arizona in 2002. The director of Pew’s election initiatives said the system is easier for voters, involves less paperwork and is therefore less prone to inaccuracies. It was a rare unanimous vote on an election bill. Democrats have spent the last few years fighting election bills pushed through by the Legislature’s Republican majority. But Rep. Bakari Sellers, the lone Democrat on the panel, praised the online registration bill as a great idea. Read More »

State election commission finds no dead voters | CarolinaLive.com

Feb 242012

In January, Department of Motor Vehicles Executive Director Kevin Shwedo said he’d analyzed state voter ID data and found 953 people had voted after their deaths. Thursday, the South Carolina State Election Commission (SEC) released the results of its investigation into that allegation. The South Carolina State Election Commission said to investigate all 953 incidents cited by Shwedo would take 1,000 hours of pouring over paper documents all over the state. So, the agency limited its investigation to 207 cases related to the 2010 General Election. The information originally cited by DMV director Shwedo covered 74 separate elections dating back to April 5, 2005. Read More »

Bill in South Carolina House would add requirements to register voters | Aiken Standard

Feb 112012

Advocates for the poor and minorities said Wednesday that a proposal to put new requirements on groups that register voters represents a bid to suppress voting among those most likely to vote for Democrats. But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Alan Clemmons, contends it’s about holding third-party groups accountable for properly handling a person’s right to vote and applies to all groups spanning the political spectrum. The House measure requires any group that conducts voter registration drives to register with the state Elections Commission and turn in voters’ forms within five days of signing them up. Fines for not turning them in start at $50. Intentional violations would bring a maximum fine of $1,000. All employees and volunteers participating in voter drives must sign a statement swearing they will uphold state election laws. Read More »

In voter ID case, South Carolina fights back against Obama administration | CSMonitor.com

Feb 102012

Voter-ID-laws-catch-fire-in-states_full_600

South Carolina’s attorney general is asking a three-judge panel in Washington to reverse a Justice Department decision blocking the state’s new voter ID law. Obama administration officials said the state law would discriminate against African-American voters. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Washington lawyer Paul Clement and state Attorney General Alan Wilson requested that a three-judge panel be appointed to decide whether South Carolina’s voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The litigation sets up another election-year flashpoint between the Obama administration and state governments over the balance of federal-state power. Read More »

Voter ID Law Defended By State In Challenge To Justice Department | Huffington Post

Feb 092012

The state of South Carolina yesterday filed a lawsuitchallenging the Justice Department’s recent blocking of the state’s recent voter identification law. And it could cost taxpayers upward of $1 million or more. In the lawsuit, Attorney General Alan Wilson asked a judge to overturn the federal government’s decision, saying that enforcement of the new law “will not disenfranchise any potential South Carolina voter,” according to reports. “The changes have neither the purpose nor will they have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority.” But Democrats and minority rights groups have said the laws are part of a concerted effort by Republicans to chip away at the voting rights of minorities — who are key constituencies for the Democrats — ahead of the 2012 presidential election. Read More »

State Sues Feds For Blocked Voter ID Law | Fox News

Feb 082012

The U.S. Justice Department was wrong to block South Carolina from requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote, the state’s top prosecutor argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Enforcement of the new law “will not disenfranchise any potential South Carolina voter,” Attorney General Alan Wilson argues in the suit against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “The changes have neither the purpose nor will they have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority.” The Justice Department in December rejected South Carolina’s law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, saying tens of thousands of the state’s minorities might not be able to cast ballots under the new law because they don’t have the right photo ID. It was the first such law to be refused by the federal agency in nearly 20 years. Read More »

Lawsuit over voter ID could cost taxpayers more than $1 million | The Post and Courier

Jan 302012

South Carolina taxpayers will be on the hook for a high-powered Washington attorney’s $520-an-hour rate when the state sues the federal government this week to protect its voter ID law. That litigation could cost more than $1 million, according to two South Carolina attorneys who have practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court. Supporters of South Carolna’s voter ID law say it is necessary to prevent voter fraud. Opponents say there is no proof that a voter-fraud problem exists.S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has more than five dozen staff attorneys to handle the state’s legal affairs, but Wilson hired a former U.S. solicitor general to litigate the voter ID case at a rate of $520 an hour, a contract obtained last week reveals. Read More »

South Carolina elections officials find money to pay for GOP presidential primary | Anderson Independent Mail

Jan 282012

The South Carolina State Election Commission has found a way to fully pay for last week’s Republican presidential preference primary, a spokesman said Thursday. The commission was facing a $500,000 shortfall for the primary, which cost an estimated $1.5 million to hold. The Joint Other Funds Committee, a panel made up of South Carolina House and Senate members, has authorized the election commission to use money set aside for the June state primary to cover expenses from last week’s voting, commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said. “This should solve the issue,” Whitmire said. “Even if we had to spend $500,000 of June primary funds, we expect to be able to fund the June primary.” Read More »

Dead Wrong? Election Official Disputes Claim That Deceased Voted in South Carolina | Columbia Free Times

Jan 272012

A top state election official disputes a recent claim that more than 950 people who voted in recent elections could actually be dead. Of the six names her office was allowed to examine, all were eligible to vote. But to hear some Republican officials tell it, you’d think that on Election Day in South Carolina, graveyards all across the state empty out and hordes of zombie voters lurch to the polls. But dead people can’t vote. They’re dead. Read More »

Charge of ‘dead voters’ disputed | TheState.com

Jan 262012

“Zombies” are not voting in South Carolina, the state’s top election official said Wednesday, disputing claims by another state official that more than 950 dead voters have cast ballots in S.C. elections. Marci Andino, director of the S.C. State Election Commission, testified before a House panel that some of the voters the Department of Motor Vehicles claims are dead actually are alive. “In many cases, these are people that our (county election officials) know, and these people are very much alive,” Andino said. Read More »

South Carolina votes without new voter ID law | CBS

Jan 232012

Dr. Brenda Williams, who grew up in the segregated South, has spent 30 years helping patients register to vote. She considers the state’s new voter ID law a reminder of when blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus. “It is a way of disenfranchisement of certain segments of our society, primarily African-Americans, the elderly, and the indigent,” Williams said in an interview in her office in Sumter, halfway between Columbia and Charleston. ”It is very sad to see our legislators try to turn the clock back,” she said. In all, 85,000 registered voters in South Carolina are without the kind of ID that would be required under the new law, according a vetting of the voter rolls by the state’s department of motor vehicles. Read More »

Stephen Colbert, Herman Cain turn spotlight on super PACs in South Carolina | The Washington Post

Jan 232012

Not everyone hooting Herman Cain at the Stephen Colbert rally here Friday was laughing with him. But he didn’t mind being the butt of jokes, he said, if only Americans could learn how to take one. His message? “As I said in one of the debates, America needs to lighten up.” Colbert’s message, on the other hand, was as serious as its delivery was lighthearted. Politicians in both parties promise to bring Americans together, but Colbert actually does, through comedy. And this rally on the campus of the College of Charleston, the day before the state’s presidential primary, was an extended riff on the serious subject of money in politics. Read More »

A Stephen Colbert Write-In Campaign in South Carolina? Not So Fast | Yahoo! News

Jan 162012

As comedian Stephen Colbert’s superPAC preps for his potential run for “President of the United States of South Carolina” by buying up ad time in the Palmetto state, there’s a problem that’s emerged in his plan. South Carolina doesn’t allow write-ins in its presidential primary. As ABC News reported last night, the filing deadline to appear on the ballot in South Carolina’s upcoming Republican primary has come and gone. Candidates who did not pay the $35,000 filing fee by Nov. 1, 2011 will not appear on the state’s ballot. A sample ballot on the State Election Commission’s website shows nine options for voters, and that’s all. For anyone thinking “well, someone could still technically write-in Mr. Colbert’s name on a ballot” – think again. South Carolina uses something called direct recording electronic voting machines in all 46 counties. The South Carolina State Election Commission describes how these machines work on their webpage. Read More »

Attorney General to speak on voting rights in South Carolina - chicagotribune.com

Jan 162012

Attorney General Eric Holder plans to deliver a speech on voting rights on Monday at a Martin Luther King holiday rally in South Carolina, a state where just weeks ago his Justice Department blocked a new voter identification law. Holder plans to attend a rally sponsored by the civil rights group National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the state capitol building in Columbia, S.C., according to a statement from the NAACP. Read More »

New report of potential “dead voters” in South Carolina … and it’s not even Halloween | Election Law Blog

Jan 142012

In the wake of James O’Keefe’s latest videos about fictitious “dead voters,” now comes a new investigation in South Carolina, looking for “actual” “dead voters.” In reviewing the state’s motor vehicle records and its voting rolls, there is apparently evidence indicating that 900 people listed as deceased are also listed as voting in subsequent elections (I’m not sure what time period is involved). With South Carolina filing a preclearance lawsuit over the new photo ID law that earned an objection from DOJ, and with the general media hubbub around the state’s upcoming presidential primary, expect this to get an awful lot of attention … along with an awful lot of misinformation. Read More »

GOP ready to battle over voter ID law | TheState.com

Jan 122012

Three of South Carolina’s top political leaders announced Tuesday their plans to file a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to block the state’s controversial voter ID law. Attorney General Alan Wilson said he will file a lawsuit within the next two weeks against the Justice Department in Washington D.C. district court. It’s necessary, Wilson said, to protect the integrity of South Carolina elections. Read More »

Haley, South Carolina to Sue Federal Government Over Voter ID | Mount Pleasant, SC Patch

Jan 112012

S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson on Tuesday said the state will file suit against the U.S. Department of Justice, which last month rejected the state’s new Voter ID law requiring all voters to show a valid state-approved photo ID in order to cast a ballot. Wilson said his office planned to file suit within the next 10 days in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, as Patch first reported last week. Read More »

Leaders say they'll fight for new voter ID law | Aiken Standard

Jan 112012

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Tuesday that federal officials are waging war with South Carolina over laws the people want, like new voter ID requirements that she and other leaders pledged to defend from challenges by the U.S. Justice Department. … The bill passed last year with broad support from Republicans, who said it would be a check on voting fraud. But Democrats said it would suppress voter turnout by making it tougher on people who lacked identification, including the poor, elderly and blacks. Read More »

Counties Tally Up Cost of Republican Primary | WSPA

Jan 062012

Upstate counties are getting a clearer idea of how much South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary will cost their taxpayers. Spartanburg County Voter Registration Director Henry Laye says his estimate now is that the Republican Presidential Primary will cost the county about $55,000 (significantly lower than his original projection of $106,000).

He still believes the state should reimburse the county for overtime for poll workers (since the election will be held on a Saturday), cost of fuel involved in dropping off and picking up voting machines at the precincts (about $1200), and maintenance and testing of voting machines. Laye says he had budgeted for these expenses. Oconee County’s Voter Registration Office did not, according to the chairman of that county’s Board of Elections. Hence the office’s request to Oconee County Council for $10,000.

“We thought either the state or the Republican Party would cover the whole cost of this election,” said Robert Brock, chair of Oconee County’s Board of Elections. County council will vote on the expense at a meeting later this month. The statewide cost of ballots, poll workers, data processing and other expenses related to the Jan. 21 primary is expected to total about $1.5 million, according to state election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire. Read More »

GOP lacks money to pay for upcoming primary | ScrippsNews

Jan 062012

With less than three weeks until South Carolina’s GOP presidential preference primary, state elections officials say they lack the cash to pay for it. But they say they are not letting that deficit prevent them from preparing for the vote.

The cost of ballots, poll workers, data processing and other expenses related to the Jan. 21 Republican primary is expected to total about $1.5 million, state election commission spokesman Chris Whitmire said Tuesday.

But the commission currently has only about $1 million earmarked to cover these costs, Whitmire said. That amount includes more than $800,000 set aside by the South Carolina legislature and $180,000 in filing fees from the nine GOP candidates whose names will appear on the ballot. Read More »

Gingrich says Obama administration seeks to steal elections with voter ID ruling | MiamiHerald.com

Jan 022012

Republican presidential hopefuls spent Saturday crisscrossing Iowa ahead of Tuesday’s caucuses, but some candidates had one eye toward South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary and an issue that might help them gain traction in the Palmetto State. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who represented Georgia, used a stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to accuse the Obama administration of trying to “steal elections” in the wake of the Justice Department’s rejection of South Carolina’s voter identification law.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division determined that the South Carolina law requiring voters to show a photo ID at polling places was discriminatory against minorities. ”… You have to ask, why is it that they are so desperate to retain the ability to steal elections, and I think that’s what it comes down to,” Gingrich said. Read More »

Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 Older Entries

South Carolina

RELATED POSTS

Related Posts

THE VOTING NEWS BY STATE

States

THE VOTING NEWS BY COUNTRY

Continents

THE VOTING NEWS BY TOPIC

Most Popular Tags

ABOUT THE VOTING NEWS

Translate this Page