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Changes to state law that would make it even less likely voters would see a candidate not affiliated with a political party on the general election ballot hardly seem necessary.
But that's what a bill vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford would have done. The measure required petition candidates to declare their intentions to run no later than noon on primary day, well before the results would be in. Election officials wouldn't do anything with that information, but file it away. The bill also gave petition candidates no more than six months to gather signatures.
Fortunately, the House sustained Sanford's veto. Unfortunately, all three of Beaufort County's House members voted to override his veto. State Sen. Tom Davis voted for the bill when it was approved in the Senate.
Sanford wrote in his veto message that 20 years ago, theU.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against a similar law on filing requirements for independent petition candidates. The court based its decision on the fact that independent candidates generally do not decide to run for office until after the primaries.
We can see an example of that today. After the Democratic primary yielded Alvin Greene, a political unknown facing pornography charges, as the party's candidate for U.S. Senate, volunteers began gathering voter signatures to get Linda Ketner, a Democrat from Charleston who almost unseated U.S. Rep. Henry Brown two years ago, on the ballot against Republican Sen. Jim DeMint. If the vetoed bill had been the law, this would not be happening.
Incumbents have a built-in advantage, as do major party candidates. Why make it harder for independent candidates to challenge them?
