When it comes to the election debacle in South Carolina, I have to hand it to the Democrats; they have played this quite well. Approximately 200 candidates (all challengers and no incumbents) have been tossed off the ballot, in large part for a paperwork technicality which involved failure to file a Statement of Economic Interest (SEI) form (which is a blank form in most cases). This failure to file the SEI is simply the failure to file a paper version of something practically all candidates filed electronically. The real victims here are not the booted candidates, but the thousands upon thousands of voters who will not be able to participate in the upcoming Primary Elections because there will be no candidates to choose from in much of the state.

If the Primary Election is allowed to go on as scheduled, I believe we are going to have an angry public when they realize our State Supreme Court removed their choices from the ballot over a technicality and enforced an obscure law for challengers and not incumbents, and our Republican Controlled Legislature (who happen to appoint the judges) did very little to rectify the situation for the voting public.

The thing is, the Democrats lost more candidates across the state and they have done nothing to help this situation either. There can only be one explanation; they actually want their voters to be angry going into the November Election. After all, the stage has been set where the blame will have to fall on the Republican controlled Legislature, complete with a Republican fall guy (Senator Jake Knotts of Lexington) who has already been clearly defined as a racist with his “raghead” comment regarding Nikki Haley.

I have no doubt the Democrat mantra will be something like: “Forget Voter ID, we just won’t let them vote at all in South Carolina.” They will point their fingers at the Republican Legislators and proclaim them all racists and do what the Democrats do best; create a divisive and hostile environment while claiming the higher ground. Their campaign tactics will become all about how “we were not allowed to vote in June, so we must turn out and show them in November that we will not be denied our right to vote.”

Make no mistake, what they are doing is creating a tragedy, and they will not let it go to waste.

For background on this story:

Lauren Hale: 179 candidates thrown off SC ballot

Spartanburg Tea Party: Potential Fallout from Lexington Lawsuit

Easley Patch: A Letter from the Pickens County Republican Party President

Crosspost from Spartanburg Tea Party