By SEANNA ADCOX
COLUMBIA — Three dozen legislative candidates kicked off primary ballots earlier this year will be on the November ballots as petition candidates.
The state Election Commission has certified 36 petition candidates for House and Senate seats. By state law, the verification process ended Wednesday.
The agency ruled the petitions of eight would-be candidates were invalid.
That compares to the one or two people who turn in petitions for statewide and legislative offices during a normal election cycle.
The unprecedented number of petition candidates stems from a state Supreme Court decision in May on improperly filed paperwork. The initial decision, plus a follow-up ruling weeks later, booted nearly 250 candidates statewide from June 12 primary ballots.
For the decertified candidates, getting on the ballot with "petition" beside their names represented their only option. The process required collecting signatures from at least 5 percent of a district's registered voters by noon July 16.
"It's impressive how much work has been done between all these campaigns," said Kerry Wood of Operation Lost Vote, which organized within several days of the first court ruling.
The loosely organized group of tea party activists plans to run a statewide awareness campaign to dissuade people from voting a straight-party ballot — the biggest obstacle to petition candidates. Anyone who votes solely along a party line would bypass them completely.
Half of all voters chose the straight-party option in 2008 and 2010, according to the election commission.
Operation Lost Vote has opened an office in Spartanburg where petition candidates can hold meetings, make calls and prepare campaign mailings. Wood said the group hopes to open offices in other areas of the state. It is distributing free materials to any petition candidate who asks, including banners, bumper stickers that read "Vote Petition," and mock ballots. It also plans to run advertisements on talk radio shows.
Spartanburg Tea Party organizer Karen Martin said the court rulings booted candidates from ballots over a technicality, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters.
"Their right to make a choice at the ballot box was taken away from them," she said. "Operation Lost Vote is a mission to give them back that right."
Certified petition candidates for legislative seats include former Republican Rep. Rex Rice, who is challenging GOP Sen. Larry Martin to represent Pickens County; and state Senate candidate Katrina Shealy, who's challenging Sen. Jake Knotts in Lexington County. The ballot dust-up stemmed from her GOP race, as two Lexington County voters filed the initial lawsuit over improperly filed financial forms.
Not all petition candidates were tossed from primary ballots. Two certified Statehouse petition candidates are also on the ballot as their party's nominee.
Reps. Tom Young, R-Aiken, and Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, are running for open Senate seats. Young, who faces no Democratic opposition to replace retiring Sen. Greg Ryberg, has said he decided to collect the necessary signatures just in case some future court decision ended up knocking him off before the November election.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
COLUMBIA — Three dozen legislative candidates kicked off primary ballots earlier this year will be on the November ballots as petition candidates.
The state Election Commission has certified 36 petition candidates for House and Senate seats. By state law, the verification process ended Wednesday.
The agency ruled the petitions of eight would-be candidates were invalid.
That compares to the one or two people who turn in petitions for statewide and legislative offices during a normal election cycle.
The unprecedented number of petition candidates stems from a state Supreme Court decision in May on improperly filed paperwork. The initial decision, plus a follow-up ruling weeks later, booted nearly 250 candidates statewide from June 12 primary ballots.
For the decertified candidates, getting on the ballot with "petition" beside their names represented their only option. The process required collecting signatures from at least 5 percent of a district's registered voters by noon July 16.
"It's impressive how much work has been done between all these campaigns," said Kerry Wood of Operation Lost Vote, which organized within several days of the first court ruling.
The loosely organized group of tea party activists plans to run a statewide awareness campaign to dissuade people from voting a straight-party ballot — the biggest obstacle to petition candidates. Anyone who votes solely along a party line would bypass them completely.
Half of all voters chose the straight-party option in 2008 and 2010, according to the election commission.
Operation Lost Vote has opened an office in Spartanburg where petition candidates can hold meetings, make calls and prepare campaign mailings. Wood said the group hopes to open offices in other areas of the state. It is distributing free materials to any petition candidate who asks, including banners, bumper stickers that read "Vote Petition," and mock ballots. It also plans to run advertisements on talk radio shows.
Spartanburg Tea Party organizer Karen Martin said the court rulings booted candidates from ballots over a technicality, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters.
"Their right to make a choice at the ballot box was taken away from them," she said. "Operation Lost Vote is a mission to give them back that right."
Certified petition candidates for legislative seats include former Republican Rep. Rex Rice, who is challenging GOP Sen. Larry Martin to represent Pickens County; and state Senate candidate Katrina Shealy, who's challenging Sen. Jake Knotts in Lexington County. The ballot dust-up stemmed from her GOP race, as two Lexington County voters filed the initial lawsuit over improperly filed financial forms.
Not all petition candidates were tossed from primary ballots. Two certified Statehouse petition candidates are also on the ballot as their party's nominee.
Reps. Tom Young, R-Aiken, and Kevin Johnson, D-Manning, are running for open Senate seats. Young, who faces no Democratic opposition to replace retiring Sen. Greg Ryberg, has said he decided to collect the necessary signatures just in case some future court decision ended up knocking him off before the November election.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
