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Friday, March 29, 2024 - 03:48 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

When South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian advocates the state government should run and pay for political party primary elections, and Republican Party leaders agree, it is time to take a close look at the situation.

Prior to 2008 Democrat and Republican parties ran their own primaries. They staffed the polls with volunteers. Party leaders resolved any questions and problems that arose.

Political parties are private organizations composed of individuals with common political beliefs and goals. Their primaries do not elect individuals for public office. They are a means for the party to select their candidates to participate in general elections for public office. Government agencies or non-party members should have no influence or say in who is selected by the party to represent them as a candidate for president or for any other elective office.

Politicians in the South Carolina legislature decided that, beginning in 2008, the state would run all primary elections. The Constitution Party and other small political parties avoided state involvement in their candidate selection by selecting them at conventions and paying the costs themselves.

Justification for the law mandating that the state run party primaries was allegedly the problems encountered in Florida during the 2000 General election between George W. Bush and Al Gore.   Any comparison was a stretch because this was a state run general election for President of the United States and not a party primary.

Republicans welcomed the change because it relieved them of the problem of finding volunteers to man the polls, and also left the state responsible for any complaints from Democrats who under South Carolina Law may vote in Republican Primaries if they so wish. Their only obstacle is that they may not vote in both the Democrat and Republican Primary during the same election cycle. The Democrats are not having a primary in 2012. They may feel free to vote in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary.

Problems have arisen regarding funding for the 2012 Republican Presidential Preference Primary.

Governor Nikki Haley vetoed funds for the primary and the legislature overrode her veto. Currently the South Carolina Election Commission has slightly more than $600,000 to fund the Republican Primary. The state party officials have said they will raise funds to pay the remaining costs. Some estimates have the un-funded amount approaching one million dollars.

The task of organizing and conducting the primary falls on the county election offices. They are concerned that they will get stuck with the bill, since they have been given what amounts to an “unfunded mandate.” Most of the counties do not have the funds to run the primary. They have expressed their concerns to the election commission through the Association of Counties, and Spartanburg County Council has voted to file a lawsuit if necessary. Greenville County Council was planning to consider a similar measure during their Tuesday night meeting.

Democrat Chairman Harpootlian is enjoying stirring the pot and exploiting the financial problem created for the Republican Party by a Republican Governor and a Republican “in name only” general assembly. He also knows what some Republicans refuse to come to grips with, and that is that he and other Democrats can vote in large numbers in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary and influence South Carolina’s preference of a candidate to challenge President Obama in the 2012 General Election.

Until South Carolina Republicans get the state government and Democrats out of their candidate selection process, South Carolina Conservatives will never have a majority of elected officials who reflect their values, beliefs and political aspirations.

South Carolina must allow registration by party and permit political parties to run their own primaries.

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