South Carolina: No money in South Carolina budget to fund 2012 GOP primary | The Associated Press

South Carolina will not fund the state GOP’s first-in-the-South presidential primary in February, leaving officials scrambling to sort out who will pay for it. The Republican Party insists the primary will go on, even if the GOP must come up with as much as $1.5 million to run it.

“In no way is this primary in jeopardy,” said Matt Moore, the state GOP’s executive director.

The party could go back to running the primary with paper ballots and volunteers, which is how it was done until 2008. That year, Republicans and Democrats pushed for and won state funding for the wide-open White House primaries and the state election commission started running them.

But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, a conservative who has been making a name for herself nationally, insists that taxpayer funds be used only for what she calls core functions. She told lawmakers earlier this year that those functions don’t include primaries.

South Carolina: Compromise reached on South Carolina spending plan – no funding for presidential primary – State may use paper ballots | Westport News

Final deals agreed to Thursday on a $6 billion spending plan will give businesses a break on millions of dollars in unemployment tax collections and put millions more into public schools.

The budget conference committee also agreed not to put cash into South Carolina’s first-in-the-South Republican primary early next year and have left it unclear whether the state GOP will run the event with paper ballots.

The agreement means the House and Senate could accept the final plan on Wednesday and send it to Gov. Nikki Haley, who can veto what she doesn’t like. And she’s set the stage already by threatening to veto extra spending on schools or any taxpayer cash used for South Carolina Education Television or the state Arts Commission.

South Carolina: GOP’s early voting opposition may nix Haley agenda in South Carolina | The Item: AP

It appears almost certain that lawmakers won’t be able to push through the government restructuring legislation wanted by Gov. Nikki Haley, as Democrats have vowed to block it unless Republicans compromise on early voting.

That’s an issue that Republicans generally are dead-set against. GOP lawmakers won’t be able to pass a resolution that allows them to consider Haley’s proposal without the support of at least some Democrats. Haley had hoped the House and Senate could get her legislation approved when they return to the Statehouse today for wrap-up on the budget and redrawing election district lines.

Editorials: League of Women Voters denounces passage of South Carolina voter suppression legislation | The Pickens Sentinel

League of Women Voters of South Carolina President Barbara Zia strongly denounced passage of the “voter photo identification” bill in the state General Assembly and calls on Governor Haley to veto this legislation.

The legislation requires eligible citizens to present specific government-issued photo identification in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote. This is an expensive new government program that will create barriers to voting for thousands of citizens in an effort to “fix” a problem that doesn’t exist.

South Carolina: South Carolina voting machines to get closer probe | The Sun News

A few dozen of the Lowcountry’s elected officials appear concerned enough about South Carolina’s voting machines to urge the legislature to look into them. Frank Heindel, a Charleston businessman, has spent months investigating the machines’ performance, and outlined his findings Monday to the board of the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments. Board members agreed to prepare…