Grassroots Group Of Republicans Say They Are Protesting Open Primaries By Voting In Saturdays Primary
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Cole Kazmarski and thousands of other voters in South Carolina will be casting their ballots in the Democratic Presidential Preference Primary on Saturday.
Kazmarski is the Vice Chair for the Midlands Republican Liberty Caucus. “This coming Saturday I plan to vote for Bernie,” she said.
Kazmarski is taking part in Operation Chaos 2020. Some conservative Republicans in South Carolina are protesting open primaries in the Palmetto State by voting on Saturday. “The only thing you have to lose is you get on their mailing list and they spend a little ad money on you in the future.”
Pressley Stutts is the Chairman of the Greenville Tea Party. He is urging fellow Republicans to vote for Senator Bernie Sanders in Saturday’s primary. “We are open and proud about it,” he said.
Stutts said if Sen. Sanders were to become the Democratic nominee, he believes President Donald Trump would have an easier path to reelection.
According to Stutts, their goal is to get South Carolina to switch to closed primaries. He said, “Primaries are a selection process. It’s not until November we actually have an election. There’s a difference between the selection process which should be done by the Republicans and the Democrats.”
Over at the State House today, the discussion of closing primaries took center stage. A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee took up two pieces of legislation that would change primaries in the state.
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Democratic Leaders Predict That Moderate Republicans Who Oppose Trump Will Vote In Primary
Kate Franch, chair of the Greenville County Democratic Party, said she believes it would be “very problematic” if Trump seeks to encourage cross-party voting in South Carolina’s presidential primary.
She cited the U.S. House of Representatives’ recent impeachment of Trump on a charge that he abused his power as president by withholding $391 million in security aid for Ukraine in an effort to pressure Kiev into investigating Biden. The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump of the charge as well as an allegation of obstruction of Congress.
‘Operation Chaos’:Some encourage Republicans to vote in Democratic primary to make a point and help Trump
Franch also issued a statement this week criticizing Stutts and other Upstate conservatives for urging Republicans to vote for Sanders.
“In calling for voters to select a specific candidate for the purpose of disrupting Saturday’s primary, Operation Chaos 2020 is engaging in interference in a free and fair election,” Franch said her statement.
“Elections are not games. Democrats believe in the right to directly choose our representatives and welcome any voter to participate in the process we champion,” Franch said. “Every voter should carefully select the candidate who most closely reflects his or her values with the knowledge that that candidate can ultimately win the seat. Your vote is your voice — it should not be wasted or debased.”
“They can’t take the immoral anti-Christian behavior of Donald Trump, and they need a change,” Robertson said.
Black Voters In South Carolina Appear Divided Because No Candidate Tried To Unite Them
ALCOLU, S.C. — No matter who wins the Democratic presidential primary on Saturday, the story of South Carolina will be one of missed opportunities for a field of candidates that failed to fully connect with the state’s black electorate.
That may be most true for former Vice President Joe Biden, who is well positioned to win the state but could fall short of the kind of decisive victory that catapulted Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination in 2008 and 2016, respectively.
This is the first time since 2004 that no single candidate is poised to take the vast majority of the African American vote. So, there should have been a premium this year on candidates courting black voters pocket by pocket to build a coalition. But polling suggests that, with only a day left until the last election before Super Tuesday, that hasn’t happened yet.
“Some are doing it well, some are still trying to figure it out,” said Clay Middleton, who served as state director for Clinton’s campaign.
The High Stakes In South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District: Can Republicans Answer
If you have a mail-in absentee ballot: For it to count, it must be received by your county voter registration office no later than 7 p.m. Tuesday night.
Options to ensure your vote is counted if you have not mailed it already include personally delivering your ballot to your county voter registration office.
You cannot return your absentee ballot to your polling place. In-person absentee voting ends at 5 p.m. on Monday.
Races to watch: The biggest race in the state is the coastal 1st Congressional District GOP primary that will decide a Republican nominee to take on incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham.
The candidates are: Bikers for Trump founder Chris Cox, Mount Pleasant Town Council member Kathy Landing, state Rep. Nancy Mace, and Bluffton housing official Brad Mole.
Residents from parts of Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester, Colleton and Beaufort counties will decide the nominee.
If no candidate receives better than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election will be held in two weeks, on June 23.
In the GOP U.S. Senate race open to Republican voters statewide, incumbent Republican Lindsey Graham faces three challengers: attorney Duke Buckner, retired businessman Michael LaPierre and maritime engineer Joe Reynolds.
Here’s what else you need to know about voting:
Where can I learn more about the candidates on my ballot?
A quick and easy online source is the website assembled by the non-partisan League of Women Voters: Vote411.org.
Where do I vote?
What South Carolina Black Voters Are Looking For In A Democratic Presidential Nominee
That lack of political sophistication on the part of the Democratic campaigns may limit the state’s traditional role as a bellwether and an influencer for heavily African American states in the Deep South and delegate-rich cities on the coasts and in the industrial Midwest later in the nominating process. If the trend continues in those states and cities, the power of black voters in picking the eventual Democratic nominee could be reduced from the decisive role they played in the 2008 and 2016 primaries.
With no candidate an automatic choice for the majority of black voters here, each hopeful had a chance to go deep into demographic nuances of the broader community to tailor messages to, say, women with post-graduate degrees, married men who work for wages, or poultry farmers. But attention to such detail was limited in 2020.
The only black candidates to enter the race — Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California, and former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts — dropped out long before the campaign turned to South Carolina. As the field grew whiter, and even as it got smaller, the challenge for strategists remained the same: There was no real playbook to follow.
“What we’re seeing now is a belated competition for voters that were probably always up for grabs in the first place,” Demissie said.
Republicans Urging Gop Voters To Vote For Sanders In South Carolina Primary: Report
State Republican leaders in South Carolina are urging GOP voters to vote for Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersMedicaid’s improper payments show why the program needs reform David Sirota: Sackler family’s attempts for legal immunity are ‘part of a larger story in America’Sanders traveling to Iowa, Indiana to pitch Biden’s spending packageMORE in the state’s Feb. 29 Democratic primary.
The plan — orchestrated by Greenville GOP chairman Nate Leupp and several other prominent Republican Party leaders — revolves around GOP leadership’s belief that Sanders poses the least amount of challenge to President TrumpDonald TrumpDemocrats sound alarm over loss in Connecticut suburbsAbbott Laboratories directs employees to dispose of rapid COVID-19 test materialsSunday shows preview: Chaos in Kabul mars US evacuation effortsMORE in November’s general election and its goal of getting the Palmetto State’s Democratic lawmakers to agree to close the state’s primaries.
“Bernie Sanders is the most socialistic, liberal candidate running in the Democratic presidential preference primary,” Leupp told The Post and Courier. “So we feel we can make a strong point that our Democratic state legislators need to help work to close our primaries so it protects them as well as the Republican brand.”
South Carolina has open primaries, meaning voters don’t have to be associated with a political party to cast a ballot.
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COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s Democratic Party chairman says his state’s open primary system is under attack from conservative activists.
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Those votes could hurt former Vice President Joe Biden – who’s banking on a win in South Carolina thanks to his strong support among the state’s African-American voters. After disappointing fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary before a distant second-place showing in last weekend’s Nevada caucuses, the former vice president’s hoping a win in the Palmetto State will resuscitate his wavering Democratic nomination bid.
South Carolina doesn’t register voters by political parties and holds open primaries – which means anyone of any political affiliation or no affiliation at all — can cast a ballot. With no Republican primary this time around, many Republicans who’ve long argued against open primaries may cross over and vote in the Democratic contest as an act of protest.
“I sincerely believe it’s an attempt for them to try and close the primary system in South Carolina,” Robertson told reporters on Thursday.
Bloomberg’s Super Tuesday sprint
Bloomberg’s itinerary is a work in progress.
What You Need To Know To Vote In Sc’s Democratic Republican Primaries This Tuesday
Polls are open statewide in South Carolina from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. for the Democratic and Republican primaries. File/Grace Beahm Alford/Staff
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South Carolina voters head to the polls statewide on Tuesday to pick hundreds of Republican and Democratic nominees for local, Statehouse and congressional seats, plus for one U.S. Senate race.
Neither Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, nor any of the other constitutional offices are up; those elections are two years away, in 2022.
Polling places in Tuesday’s primaries open statewide from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
In order to take part, you must be registered already; the application period closed last month. South Carolina does not have Election Day registration.
Here are some tips to make Tuesday go smoother:
Beating the clock: If you are in line by 7 p.m., you will still be allowed to vote.
Be patient: Officials are stressing there could be hiccups in the age of the coronavirus. Officials are asking voters to recognize the 6-foot social distancing rule while standing in line and to wear a mask if you have one, though it is not required.
Safety tips: Bring your own pen to sign-in. That way you can avoid handling one that may have been picked up by multiple hands ahead of you.
Also, show your photo ID by holding it up for poll managers instead of handing it to them.
You will be given a cotton swab to make your picks on voting machine screens.
To The South Carolinas Open Democratic Primary Means Republicans Can Vote As Well
She said she’s ready any kind of time to decline the super PAC support, but she won’t do this alone. In the occasion on Saturday, Warren noted that within her first Us senate run in Massachusetts in 2012, the lady and her challenger, Republican Scott Dark brown, agreed not in order to use super PAC money. The dig prompted boos between the audience, relatively in opposition to Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist. “I think I’m the particular only candidate to come to Wilmington, but all of them should visit, inch Bloomberg said.
Tradition Of Crossover Voting In South Carolina: ‘it Used To Be Called Mischief’
“It used to be called mischief voting,” said Woodard, who described a tradition of voters casting inauspicious ballots for opposing parties.
There were such George McGovern crossover voters in 1972, Woodard said.
And Woodard said some GOP consultants suggested in 2000 that votes for John McCain were coming from Democrats.
Such organized crossover efforts were promoted in 2008 by syndicated radio show host Rush Limbaugh.
In 2016, according to Woodard, there was a small effort among Democrats to vote for Trump in the Republican primary because they thought he would be an easier opponent to beat in the general election.
What Voters Can Expect During South Carolinas Democratic Presidential Primary
Democrats’ fourth presidential nominating contest will be held todayin South Carolina, where voters statewide will use new, upgraded machines to cast ballots in the last stand-alone primary before Super Tuesday next week.
South Carolina election officials expressed confidence that their primary will go smoothly, aware of the intense scrutiny they are facing after the chaos of Iowa caucuses, whose results were delayed for days in part because of problems with a mobile app used to report figures to the state party.
Chris Whitmire, director of public information at the South Carolina Election Commission, said he and his colleagues “feel as confident as election officials can feel on the eve of a statewide election with the eyes of the world upon us.”
Saturday marks the first time voters across South Carolina will use new ballot-marking devices — voting machines involving a touch screen that produces a printed paper ballot read by a scanner. Experts said that heightened preparations by state officials and strong voter education efforts should helpease the process at the state’s nearly 2,000 polling places.
The scene during the South Carolina Democratic primary
“The state and the counties know that everyone will be looking at them so they know they better be prepared,” said Duncan Buell, a computer science professor at the University of South Carolina and member of the Board of Voter Registration and Elections in Richland County, the second largest in the state.
How Are Ballots Cast What Election Security Measures Have Been Put In Place
For the first time, voters across South Carolina will use new ballot-marking devices. The system was used in more than 220 smaller elections in the state since Oct. 1, but Saturday is the first time it will be available statewide.
Voting withthe machines involves several steps. First, voters insert a blank paper ballot into a machine and use a touch screen to select their preferred candidate. The machine prints their choice on the ballot in the form of a name and a bar code. Voters then insert those printed ballots into a specially designed scanner, which reads the bar code and records their vote. In a final step, the printed ballot is deposited into a locked ballot box for safekeeping.
For the last 15 years, South Carolina voters had used touch-screen machines that did not produce paper records. State officials said having a paper backup should reassure voters.
“It adds a layer of security to our election process,” Whitmire said. “I couldn’t have imagined us getting a voting system that did not have paper because that is the security standard of today.”
South Carolina’s machines are the ExpressVote model from Elections Systems & Software, one of the largest U.S. manufacturers of voting equipment. The system cost approximately $51 million in summer 2019, according to the South Carolina Election Commission. Of that cost, $5.5 million was covered by federal funds under the Help America Vote Act.
Theres No Gop Primary In South Carolina Some Republicans Will Vote Anyway
An effort to encourage conservatives to participate in the state’s open primary for Democrats is meant to show the process’s flaws. Chaos, organizers said, would be a side benefit.
But some conservative activists, eager to unearth any political advantage, are encouraging Republicans to vote this weekend anyway — for a Democrat.
If they can stomach it, backers said, Republicans should take advantage of South Carolina’s open primary system, which allows voters to cast a ballot without registering with a party. Multiple organized efforts are underway, with one going so far as to quote-unquote endorse Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who state polls show is closely trailing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
“We’d like to have a hand in helping the President by giving him an avowed socialist to face in November!” the organizers of one of the groups, Trump 2-29, a reference to the date of Saturday’s primary, wrote on its Facebook page. “Haven’t you waited a VERY long time to DO SOMETHING for President Trump??? Here ya go.”
The organizers conceded that they relished the chance to roil Democrats, especially during a moment in the campaign when friction between the party’s candidates has become especially acute.
But they said they were motivated by a larger mission: For years, conservative activists have sought to close South Carolina’s open primaries, and this election offered ideal circumstances for creating a live demonstration of the flaws they see in the system.
South Carolina’s Open Democratic Primary Means Republicans Can Vote Too
February 28, 2020 / 6:03 PM / CBS News
What to expect from South Carolina primary08:11
When South Carolina voters cast their votes in the state’s Democratic primary Saturday, registered Republicans will also be able to show up and vote. Here, the state’s primaries are open, which means all registered South Carolina voters can participate in either party’s primary regardless of political affiliation.
The South Carolina Republican Party announced in September that it would join a list of other states that would not hold a presidential primary this year. Historically, the South Carolina GOP also didn’t hold primaries when Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were incumbents in 1984 and 2004, respectively.
Now, some South Carolina Republicans and Tea Party activists are encouraging Republican voters to participate in Saturday’s contest. Karen Martin, organizer of the Spartanburg Tea Party, is leading Trump 229 , an effort that’s using social media and word-of-mouth to encourage Republicans to vote for Bernie Sanders on Saturday.
Joe Biden has been leading the race in South Carolina. Martin said that her small group was hoping to win enough support for Sanders to bump him into first place, above Joe Biden, who has been holding onto a shrinking lead in the state.
At least one state GOP official suggested the cross-party efforts were misguided.
Other Democratic party leaders like Charleston County Democratic Party Chair Colleen Condon think this isn’t a “sabotage” mission.
The Republicans Planning To Vote In South Carolinas Democratic Primary
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Twelve years ago, Rush Limbaugh, who had not yet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, urged the listeners of his enormously popular and very conservative talk-radio show to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. In the patchwork process that is employed to nominate Presidential candidates, more than a dozen states have open primaries, which allow registered voters to participate in either contest. Limbaugh wanted Clinton’s close but seemingly losing fight with Barack Obama to go on for as long as possible, on the theory that a protracted battle would weaken the eventual nominee. He called the plan Operation Chaos. Limbaugh didn’t think that Clinton was necessarily the weaker of the two candidates—in fact, he ultimately concluded that Obama was; by May, 2008, he was pushing his fans to vote for the senator from Illinois. “Barack Obama has shown he cannot get the votes Democrats need to win—blue-collar, working-class people,” Limbaugh said. “He can get effete snobs, he can get wealthy academics, he can get the young, and he can get the black vote, but Democrats do not win with that.”
With No Republican Primary Gop Supporters Are Free To Vote For ‘chaos’
With no Republican presidential primary this year, Republicans are free to make what political scientists call negative strategic votes for Democrats without having to sacrifice the chance to vote for their own party.
Voters can cast ballots in only one primary per election, but they can vote however they choose in general elections despite the primary they choose.
The only cost for Republicans who are so inclined to instigate “chaos?” They’ll get on a Democratic mailing list.
And, indeed, they could be a factor in the primary, said David Woodard, a Clemson University professor who has consulted with Republicans for decades.
Republicans who otherwise wouldn’t want to interrupt their Republican voting record could actually brag about crossing over this year, Woodard said. And fueled by impeachment and memories of Supreme Court confirmation hearings, Republicans will be highly motivated this year, Woodard said.
Statewide, the Republican turnout of 740,881 voters in the 2016 presidential primary was almost exactly twice the turnout of the Democratic primary.
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Pursuing their poor activities, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Mary Steyer ended their presidential campaigns just before Super Tuesday. This particular meant that moderate voters coalesced instead of splitting their particular votes between multiple candidates, giving Joe Biden multiple return wins on Top Tuesday.
Two weeks into 2020, right after three states have weighed in, New jersey, New Hampshire in addition to Nevada, Bernie Sanders has emerged as the front-runner, winning both Nevada and New Hampshire, and attaining the greatest number of votes inside Iowa. Tom Steyer may have decreased out of the particular presidential race, nevertheless it should end up being noted the video clip from his Southerly Carolina rally yesterday, in which he danced alongside typically the rapper Juvenile, will live on forever. Joe Biden appears to be able to have surpassed Bernie Sanders in the primary-wide popular vote thanks to his huge victory in South Carolina.
Qualities Of Individuals That Mattered For Sc Primary Voters
“Now we need in order to stand behind Jaime Harrison, the next president of the United — subsequent senator, ” Joe biden said of Harrison, who is running to oust Republican senator Lindsey Graham. Steyer promised to carry on working on the concerns that animated his campaign, specifically ethnic justice and weather change. Steyer stated he failed to observe a path to be able to victory after their disappointing third-place end in South Carolina, but he agreed to continue taking care of issues that counted to him such as racial justice in addition to climate change. Joe biden and Graham worked well together in the Senate, nevertheless the pair sparred publicly when Graham echoed typically the president’s baseless data corruption allegations against Biden and his child, Hunter.
Following the completion of, reviewing, and printing the ballot, voters cast their have your vote in a boule scanner. South Carolina doesn’t have sign up by party plus the state’s primaries are usually open, which implies all registered Sth Carolina voters can participate in both party’s primary regardless of political affiliation.
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Winning The Primary Requires Exciting A Crucial Constituency
This year’s Democratic primary in South Carolina might be the most important competition in the contest’s short history. Since first becoming a binding primary in 1988, the state’s contest has become a bellwether for an important constituency: Southern African American voters. Though most Southern states aren’t competitive in general elections, Southern African Americans form the base of the Democratic Party and are essential to its success, even if pundits more frequently focus on swing states and suburban voters.
That is why the winner in South Carolina has won the Democratic nomination every year except 1988 and 2004. If a Democratic candidate can’t appeal to these crucial African American voters, he or she is unlikely to win the nomination or the presidency.
The rise of the South Carolina primary fit into the Democratic Party’s effort to open up the nominating process. After the chaos of Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the McGovern-Fraser Commission investigated ways for the party to choose delegates through a more transparent and democratic process. They hoped that this would make the party more responsive to activists and voters. The result was the rise of a parade of single-state primaries in the 1970s and 1980s.
While the region leaned right more broadly, the large number of African American voters across the South made Jackson a front-runner in many of those contests — including in South Carolina, his home state.
