Just got around to this news from yesterday:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Tuesday runoff election has been set to determine the Democratic nominee in South Carolina’s new 7th congressional district after a judge ruled all ballots cast in the race should be counted.
The Election Commission said it will not appeal the ruling and is preparing voting machines for the new race, while the candidate that was originally declared the winner said Friday evening she hasn’t decided whether she will appeal.
The ruling on Friday means an unprecedented four-day campaign for the district, which stretches from Florence to Myrtle Beach, in the northeast part of the state. With all the votes counted in the five-way contest, Gloria Bromell Tinubu, a Coastal Carolina University economics professor, received 49 percent of all the votes cast in the June 12 primary, while Myrtle Beach attorney Preston Brittain received 37 percent.
In his ruling, Judge Larry B. Hyman Jr. said the state Election Commission was wrong when it refused to count votes for state Rep. Ted Vick, D-Chesterfield, who dropped out of the race after a drunken-driving arrest in late May.
I don’t know what to think of it, other than this… I’d like to go through a period of time in which people file for office, and run, and don’t get kicked off the ballot, and either win or lose based on the number of votes on that day, without all of these courtroom dramas changing or putting forth new interpretations on rules, and changing results, to the point that we can’t keep track of who’s running for what when.
That would be nice, just for a change.
Related Posts
Yes, there are several excellent strategies for voting that eliminate runoffs. We should try one or more.
Also, scrutinizing statutes better before we pass them….but that would require firing up the lawyer-industrial complex….