{"id":1429,"date":"2009-03-24T10:58:51","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T15:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2009-03-24T10:58:51","modified_gmt":"2009-03-24T15:58:51","slug":"petition-candidate-curbs-sought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/24\/petition-candidate-curbs-sought\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition candidate curbs sought"},"content":{"rendered":"

Critics say it will force voters to go with political parties
\nBy Jim Davenport<\/strong>
\nThe Associated Press<\/p>\n

South Carolina\u2019s Democrats and Republicans are working together to limit petition candidate challenges to their nominees, raising the concerns of a voting rights advocate Monday about whether the party efforts will hurt voters\u2019 ability to put candidates of their choosing on the ballot.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Gaffney, introduced a bill last week that would force petition candidates to file at the same time party hopefuls do. The measure also would bar those who vote in primaries from signing petitions to get independent candidates on the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our perspective, that voter has already participated in that nominating process,\u201d said Jay W. Ragley, the South Carolina Republican Party\u2019s executive director. \u201cA voter who votes in a primary and then signs a petition is essentially given two bites at the apple to nominate someone for office.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a state with an open primary system, the move will force voters more than ever to go along with political parties, observers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s an unnecessary impediment to an open democratic system and it\u2019s clearly designed to protect the two dominant parties. The notion that if you vote in a primary, you can\u2019t sign a petition for anybody is overly broad,\u201d said [SC Progressive Networ<\/a>k Director] Brett Bursey, a voting rights advocate, on Monday. \u201cThere\u2019s something about democracy that they\u2019re not quite getting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both major parties are unabashed about the desire to cut post-primary challenges to their nominees. That\u2019s been a problem for both parties in the past. For instance, state Sen. Mike Rose of Summerville knocked off an incumbent in last year\u2019s GOP primary and then faced a petition candidate in the general election backed by a mix of Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see a wave of people playing spoiler,\u201d Ragley said.<\/p>\n

Petition candidates don\u2019t have an easy ride to the ballot. They have to gather 5 percent of the signatures of the voters for that office and that\u2019s capped at 10,000. They have to turn them in by July .
\nRagley also notes they don\u2019t have to pay filing fees as party candidates do.
\nBut \u201cit\u2019s really a bigger issue about protecting the Democratic and Republican nominees who have gone through the primary process,\u201d said Jay Parmley, state Democratic Party\u2019s executive director. \u201cOur job also is to protect our brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Peeler\u2019s legislation, Rose\u2019s challenger would have had to file candidacy papers with the election officials at the same time candidates file with their parties. People signing his petition would have had to have been registered for at least 30 days. And no one would be able to sign the petition if they had voted in a primary.<\/p>\n

The later requirement creates a big problem, said Danielle Vinson, a Furman University political scientist. \u201cIt suggests that people are happy with the parties,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Voters, for instance, may choose not to vote in particular race showing up on the primary ballot because they don\u2019t like their choices. But that person would face the choice of voting in the primary for other candidates or supporting the single petition candidate\u2019s effort to get on the ballot.
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s problematic,\u201d Vinson said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, once filing closes and it\u2019s clear that a party hasn\u2019t put up a challenger in a race, the legislation would all but assure that voters see only that unopposed candidate\u2019s name on the ballot. Even Democrats have responded to that in past by putting up petition candidates, Parmley said.
\n\u201cIt certainly can be used as a fail-safe mechanism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But it falls far short of any effort to close the primary, Parmley said. \u201cThe primary system is still as open as it ever was.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a step, too far, toward protecting parties, said Bursey. \u201cIt\u2019s really clear that the majority party doesn\u2019t want more people voting,\u201d Bursey said of the GOP. He also said Democrats also appeared to be trying to protect their candidates.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody needs to remind these people that the two-party system is not built into our laws.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Critics say it will force voters to go with political parties By Jim Davenport The Associated Press South Carolina\u2019s Democrats and Republicans are working together to limit petition candidate challenges to their nominees, raising the concerns of a voting rights … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-network-newsevents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}