photo courtesy:http://www.scstatehouse.net/studentpage/strom.htm
Digging around a bit more today after shedding the late night tired associated with incomplete blog posts, we discovered that our fine, Charleston City Paper, kindly took on the topic of write-in voting in the State of South Carolina back in March. Turns out South Carolina is one of only a few states in the union that have outlawed write-in voting. We are flat not allowed to do it. But just when we thought we were all nice and smartened up, one of our more astute readers posted the following.
Sadly, the State of South Carolina eliminated the ability of voters to write in a candidate. If a candidate desires to be written in, s/he must submit notification to the State Election Board of that intent, long prior to the election date, so that the Board can approve that candidate and include that name on the electronic ballot - or disapprove that candidate and leave no room on the ballot for her/him. Just another way SC has denied its own history, never mind the rights of the citizenry.Thank you, thank you, Wiley for your input.
Personally, we think it might just be about time to resurect the spirit of ole Strom Thurmond and his flexible, quick-witted legal mind. We may not agree with many of his causes and find ourselves heavily objectionable to the more unpallitable shenanigans woven through the framework of this infamous South Carolinian's life, yet we ponder the mind and motiviations of one of the only write-in vote winners in history (who ran as a democrat when he won that vote, mind you).
Perhaps if Strom were with us still today, and we asked him what to do in this situation, he would simply laugh and say, "overturn it."
Additional research produced a few other tidbits, namely some info from the Statehouse, and contact info to a fellow on Folly Beach who appears to be already working to change the law. More comments are welcome if you can add to the fare here. Thanks, ya'll.
1 comment:
Thanks for the compliment; but I'm not astute. Garry Baum (of the State Election Commission) happens to be very high in my esteem, as was my beloved, late friend Jim Hendrix before him. Both represent/ed the Election Commission as fair and equitable, uncontrolled by the Legislature's machinations, but ever since Hodges became governor, that went out the window. Their funding and personnel were drastically cut, and the Commission has become mere puppets of the powers that be; a toothless and effectless Rottweiler-guardian of the citizens' rights. Good luck correcting THAT, with the very people who changed it currently in office.
The current head of the Commission used to work for the company that now sells and maintains the electronic voting machines that the State requires all jurisdictions to use... the same ones that have been proven to be easily corruptible, especially recently in Horry County. Gasp.
Of course, that's just my humble opinion, and refers to absolutely NOTHING that Garry has confided/not confided; but all done thru independent research. The problems run deeper than you know - and can all be traced back to the Statehouse's Legislative steps.
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