AP reports what a mess the South Carolina primary has become and predictably the military voters receive the brunt of incompetence and delay due to litigation.
South Carolina’s June 12 primary should be delayed because a state
Supreme Court decision removed nearly 200 candidates from ballots,
according to an attorney behind a federal lawsuit over the issue.
A delay is needed because state election officials
violated federal law when they sent ballots to overseas voters and
military members that only had federal races on them, Todd Kincannon
told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“The ballots that they mailed out to military voters
are not worth the paper they are printed on,” Kincannon said. “Each and
every one of them is illegal because they are all in violation of the
Voting Rights Act.”
Under the Voting Rights Act, any changes to South
Carolina’s election law must be approved by the U.S. Department of
Justice because of the state’s past failure to protect blacks’ voting
rights. Kincannon said that, to comply with that requirement, the state
Election Commission would have needed the department’s approval before
sending the federal-only ballots.
“These guys have a right to vote in state elections, too,” Kincannon said. “You cannot make it up as you go along.”