York County GOP clarifies stance on primaries after ballot brouhaha

Next week, York County voters will head to the polls for the 2012 primaries — and unlike previous years, the names on the ballot won’t be wholly representative of those actually running for office.

That’s because of a supreme court decision back in May that ruled some 200 candidates for local and state off the ballot, including six from York County, after incorrectly filing campaign ethics paperwork. York County GOP Chairman Glenn McCall.

Those petition candidates specifically include Gary Williams and John Rinehart, who were both booted from the ballot.

McCall says the party will remain neutral in the affected races through Election Day in November.

McCall says Williams and Rinehart will be designed as Independent candides on the November 6 ballot. But there is one exception.

The brouhaha that led up to the deranged ballots was caused by two conflicting state laws that required candiates for office to file ethics paperwork online — and an older law on the state’s books that didn’t cancel out a law requiring a paper copy of the form to be submitted when the candidate filed for office.

McCall says the one race that the York GOP will back is that of Raye Felder, who is on the ballot as a petition candidate facing a democratic challenger.

Felder is the only other candidate in the race, and until the supreme court’s decision, was the presumptive GOP nominee for the new House seat District 26 in Fort Mill.