Posted on 10/18/2011 4:40:00 PM PDT by mandaladon
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- South Carolina lacks the authority to conduct a 2012 presidential primary, according to a lawsuit filed by four counties at the state Supreme Court.
The counties, in a case filed Monday, argue a 2008 primary law doesn't apply to running a 2012 primary. They argue the state Election Commission lacks the authority to conduct the primary and enter a contract with the state Republican Party to pay for it. And they say the commission can't require counties to cover expenses for the GOP primary.
The counties said they "are on the precipice of having to expend precious public funds to conduct what is wholly a private function on behalf of a private political party."
The lawsuit names the state Election Commission and the state Republican and Democratic parties.
State GOP Executive Director Matt Moore said the primary is part of the state's law. "It's clearly written in this year's budget law that the state should be involved with the 2012 primary so any claim otherwise is wrong," Moore said. He said the primary is an important public function, not a private operation.
The litigation was filed hours after a meeting between county voting officials and the state Election Commission and caps weeks of arguments about counties getting stuck with the tab for putting on the primary.
The Supreme Court has not decided to hear the case. If it did, and ruled in the counties' favor, legislators could be forced to come into session to pass a special primary law as deadlines loom for the Jan. 21 contest. The state has to have names to put on the ballot by Nov. 1 and it has to have overseas absentee ballots in the mail by Dec. 7.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
South Carolina lacks the authority to conduct a 2012 presidential primary
Holy cow. Not a primary at all? Thank God Florida moved up their primary or we seriously would have blue states picking our candidate. If South Carolina drops out of the primary season it would not be good. What is the governor doing about this. She should be all over the media exposing this and coming up with conclusions for correcting this. She has been too quite lately anyway.
Somewhere, hidden from all of us, are panicked Establishment Republicans.
Somehow I feel this is designed to hurt Cain.
Oh Geez....Great. The state is broke so I may not get a choice in the Presidential Race......Some Freeper vote Herman Cain for me...LOL
So let me see if I understand this correctly. A lawsuit was filed. The Supreme Court is not going to hear the case. So it is, shall we say, a moot point. Or would that be mute? ;-)
Not having a primary is not going to go over well
Was SC one of the states that recently changed their date?
ping
So this thread is much ado about nothing?
“Somewhere, hidden from all of us, are panicked Establishment Republicans.”
Right on the money. This has their finger prints all over it. If they can get enough of the Thurston Howell/Karl Rove votes before the southern primaries, they and the complicit media can declare Mittens the winner before it begins.
I never thought I would see the day when the party I’ve been loyal to, held my nose and voted for, would stoop to the level of Democrats. Not to mention the all out assault they have waged on FR the last couple of weeks.
Aside from abortion, taxes, and immigration have been the driving positions we wanted from a candidate, and the only candidate even addressing these issues in this election is being attacked, not by others with better ideas, but by people arguing that we shouldn’t do anything about them. For me that certainly exposes their agenda.
It’s no wonder we got McLame last time.
I have a serious question. I was going to write a vanity post about it, but I figured I’d get flamed because I’m sure it’s been brought up before, but here goes:
If the Republican establishment sabotages us bad enough, and the Democrats wreak enough havoc on our primary process to give us Mitens against the popular will of the Conservative voters, can the delegates walk into the convention and change the presumed nominee. Isn’t it the delegates vote that counts in the end?
It would be great fun watching liberal heads explode right there on live TV.
Somehow, these counties didn’t mind when they were paying for the Hillary-Obama primary in 2008 . . . .
I agree. The parties should each hold and fund their own primary with their own members only.
oh what the hell...we don’t need primaries, those things are only good for liberal states!? Stupid idiots!
South Carolina
Ping
Send FReepmail to join or leave this list.
SC ping
“... can the delegates walk into the convention and change the presumed nominee...”
YES!
Rush has talked about that in the past. While that can happen in theory, in his opinion it will never happen in reality.
“The Supreme Court has not decided to hear the case”. Hey Friend, you need to read this three times like I needed too. The Court has not decided, to or not to, hear the case. This was written to fool the reader, or just a piss pour AP writer. ;0)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.