Court stops SC restrictions on alternative party candidates

Alternative parties  in South Carolina will have more freedom to field candidates, if a federal court injunction stays in place. 

A federal court Monday issued an injunction against the SC Election Commission, at the request of the ACLU. Evoking the Voting Rights Act, the court has actually restored freedom that was allowed until April of 2008.  That year, the commission instituted multiple Statement of Intention of Candidacy forms before the primaries. This meant that non-mainstream parties could not support a candidate who was already on the ballot, unless they had done the pre-primary paperwork.

This is important, argued ACLU attorney Laughlin McDonald, because it impaired third party freedom of speech and barred “fusion” of parties. If an alternative party also wanted to list a candidate who is on the ballot, they would be stopped, according to current SCEC requirements.

“It basically made it very difficult, if not impossible for alternative parties to cross-nominate candidates who had been nominated by one of the parties that held a primary. Not only that, it would have an adverse impact on those alternative parties that wanted to give minority voters and others an opportunity to participate in the general election process,” McDonald says.

McDonald, who argued the ACLU case, says they sought other ways to resolve this, including writing a letter to the SC Attorney General. McDonald says the ALCU did not get a response, so they proceeded with the suit.

South Carolina is one of only four states to allow duplication of candidates, or fusion voting.  This ruling will afford more power to the Tea Party in South Carolina.  According to McDonald, this “reset” of the Voting Rights Act only requires the filing of one statement of intent of candidacy and should have a positive impact on the increased use of fusion.

According to a spokesman, the state Election Commission this week will decide its response to the ruling.