South Carolina General Assembly
106th Session, 1985-1986

Bill 2913

                    Current Status

Bill Number:               2913
Ratification Number:       365
Act Number:                346
Introducing Body:          House
Subject:                   Relating to the definitions for purposes
                           of election law
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(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

(A346, R365, H2913)

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 7-1-20, AS AMENDED, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO DEFINITIONS FOR PURPOSES OF ELECTION LAW, SO AS TO CORRECT A REFERENCE IN THE DEFINITION OF "POLITICAL PARTY", AND TO AMEND SECTION 7-9-10, AS AMENDED, RELATING TO CERTIFICATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES BY THE STATE ELECTION COMMISSION, SO AS TO PROVIDE A METHOD FOR DECERTIFYING PARTIES FAILING TO MEET CRITERIA FOR CERTIFIED PARTIES AND PROVIDE A METHOD FOR OBTAINING CERTIFICATION AS A POLITICAL PARTY.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

Definitions

SECTION 1. Item (7) of Section 7-1-20 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:

"(7) 'Political party' means a political party, organization, or association certified as such by the State Election Commission in the manner provided for in this title;".

Certification of political parties

SECTION 2. Section 7-9-10 of the 1976 Code, as last amended by Act 263 of 1984, is further amended to read:

"Section 7-9-10. Political parties desiring to nominate candidates for offices to be voted on in a general or special election shall, before doing so, have applied to the State Election Commission (Commission) for certification as such. Parties shall nominate candidates of that party on a regular basis, as provided in this title, in order to remain certified. Any certified political party that fails to organize on the precinct level as provided by Section 7-9-50, hold county conventions as provided by Sections 7-9-70 and 7-9-80, and hold a state convention as provided by Section 7-9-100; that fails to nominate candidates for national, state, multi-county district, countywide, or less than countywide office by convention or party primary as provided by Sections 7-11-20, 7-11-30, and 7-13-40; and that fails to certify the candidates as provided by Section 7-13-350 in at least one of two consecutive general elections held on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November of an even-numbered year, or that fails to nominate and certify candidates in any other election which might be held within the period of time intervening between the two general elections, must be decertified by the State Election Commission. The party must be notified in writing of its decertification at the last address of record. If the notification of decertification is returned as undeliverable, it must be placed on file in the office of the State Election Commission and with the Secretary of State.

Any decertified party or any noncertified party, organization, or association may obtain certification as a political party at any time by filing with the Commission a petition for the certification signed by ten thousand or more registered electors residing in this State, giving the name of the party, which must be substantially different from the name of any other party previously certified.

No petition for certification may be submitted to the Commission later than six months prior to any election in which the political party seeking certification wishes to nominate candidates for public office.

At the time a petition is submitted to the Commission for certification, the Commission shall issue a receipt to the person submitting the petition which reflects the date the petition was submitted and the total number of signatures contained therein. Once the petition is received by the Commission, the person submitting the petition shall not submit or add additional signatures.

If the Commission determines, after checking the validity of the signatures in the petition, that it does not contain the required signatures of registered electors, the person submitting the petition must be notified and shall not submit any new petition seeking certification as a political party under the same name for one year from the date the petition was rejected.

Once a petition for certification has been submitted and rejected by the Commission, the same signatures may not be submitted in any subsequent petition to certify a new political party.

Once submitted for verification, a petition for certification may not be returned to the political party, organization, or association seeking certification, but shall become a part of the permanent records of the Commission."

Time effective

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon approval by the Governor.