I don’t know about SC specifically, but I believe that most States allow for a ‘fee in lieu of petition’. You can submit petitions to file for free (showing that you have a minimum base of support), or you can pay the fee. In either case, you have, to quote our illustrious pResident, “Skin in the game.” That puts up a minimum bar to keep from having 1,000 names on the primary ballot.
If you are running for U.S. Senate, and you can’t afford $10,400, then you aren’t series about running for Senate.
I paid $3,125 to run for Congress in TX (lost the primary). I could have provided a petition of 500 Republican primary voters instead. Sounds easy. Except. If you have 10 seconds to spend with a potential voter, you don’t want to waste that time talking about the legalize of signing a petition.
Besides, nobody goes through your cash to see which dollars they can get disqualified.
Really. I spent tens of thousands of dollars (much of it my own money) and a year of my life running for Congress. $3,125 is NOT why I didn’t win and wasn’t a serious bar to entry considering all the other costs - money, time, and otherwise - to run.
Heh, heh, heh...
I wonder who is funding the challenge to Greene’s win by Rawls?