(Columbia, SC) Senator McConnell provided the following statement concerning the lawsuit filed to prevent the State Election Commission from conducting the 2012 Presidential Primary. “I continue to believe that the express language contained in South Carolina Code Section 7-11-20 is unambiguous and that it only gives the State Election Commission the power to conduct the 2008 Presidential Primary. Absent further legislative action regarding Presidential Primaries and that code section, I believe that the State of South Carolina would have had no statutory basis for conducting a Presidential Primary in 2012.
However, there has been subsequent legislative action. I think that the General Assembly was quite clear in this year’s budget bill that the State Election Commission is to conduct the Presidential Primary in 2012. There are two budget provisos (79.6 and 79.12) that specifically allow the State Election Commission to use carryover funds to conduct the 2012 Presidential Primary. While the use of those funds is discretionary, I believe that the requirement for the Election Commission to conduct the Presidential Primary in 2012 is not.
There is also a catch-all proviso at the end of the Appropriations Act that provides “[a]ll acts or parts of acts inconsistent with any of the provisions of Parts IA or IB of this act are suspended for Fiscal Year 2011-2012.” That proviso, in my opinion, suspends any conflicting provision in the law that could call into question the Election Commission’s authority and legislative directive to conduct the presidential primary in 2012.”
