State GOP seeks to remove Democrats' House 63 candidate from ballot

The S.C. Republican Party is seeking to have Barry Wingard removed from the ballot in the state House District 63 race because it says the Democratic candidate failed to file by the deadline.

The district is represented by Republican Kris Crawford of Florence, who is seeking re-election.

The state Republican Party is asking the Florence County Voter Registration and Elections Commission to take Wingard off the ballot.

County elections director Mike Young, however, said the matter is a “party-versus-party” issue, and S.C. State Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum said a political party would be responsible for decertifying any of its candidates.

State Republican Party spokesman Rob Godfrey, however, said the county elections commission “inserted themselves into the matter” and is responsible for reviewing filings to ensure they were done by the deadline.

Godfrey also said the state Republican Party could consider further legal action depending on the county elections commission’s actions on the matter.

Wingard said the county Democratic Party’s filing offices were closed when he arrived about 11 a.m. March 30, about an hour before the filing deadline.

He said he was “in the right place at the right time” and had followed the rules.

“I think this is kind of an underhanded deal by the Republican Party, and I think this is a good example of why good people are reluctant to run for office,” Wingard said.

Crawford said he hopes for the political parties and the courts to resolve the matter.

“It’s not a Kris-versus-Barry issue — we’re in the same Rotary Club, for heaven’s sakes,” he said.

The Republican Party says Wingard’s paperwork shows he filed for office at 1:35 p.m. March 30, although filing ended at noon that day.

Young said that when he received Wingard’s paperwork, he told Florence County Democratic Party chairman Spencer Scott that the forms hadn’t been filed on time. Scott then said the time on the paperwork was incorrect because of a clerical error and changed it to 11:35 a.m., he wrote in a letter to the state elections commission.

Young said that procedure was nothing unusual and that he would have done the same thing for the Republicans.

Scott said Wingard had done the necessary paperwork on time, but the filing location hadn’t been opened at the correct hour.

Scott said the county Democratic Party had thought the filing office had to be open for four hours March 30, but was unaware those hours had to run from 8 a.m. to noon. Therefore, he said, the county party had advertised that filing would run from noon until 4 p.m. that day.

Wingard said he called Scott nearly a half-hour after arriving at the filing office. County party’s official filing officer Barbara Gardner later arrived to accept his statement of intention for candidacy.

AG’s opinion says commission can’t remove candidate

An opinion from the S.C. Attorney General’s Office states that a county elections commission has no authority to determine whether a candidate has properly filed.

A 1995 letter from the attorney general’s office states that the county elections commissions “are only required and authorized to place the names of candidates certified to them by the political party chairman on the ballots.”

The letter also states that except in cases of fraud or noncompliance with the law, “the party’s decisions would appear to control the determination of candidate filing with the party.”

The 1995 letter regarded contested Democratic filings for the Georgetown County School Board.