South Carolina is an open primary state. That means you don't register as a voter for a particular party, you can vote in any primary you wish, as long as you only vote in one. You can't, for example, vote in a Republican primary and then a Democratic runoff election, but voting in the Democratic presidential primary does not effect ones ability to vote in the Republican primary for state and local offices. I have no contested primaries for Democrats in my precinct, so I'm considering voting in the Republican primary.
There are 4 races and 2 ballot questions.
U.S. Senate
Lyndsey is unlikely to be primaried out, but of his 3 opponents, 2 are bible thumpers but the other one, Joe Reynolds, stands out.
I emailed him and got a very nice reply that he believes everyone deserves respect and should be heard and that he is running to represent everyone, not just the Republican base.
He also states in a blog that he did not vote for trump nor would he. He is also a champion of the separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches. He's the one vote I feel strongly about.
S.C. Senate District 5
I really don't care for our state senator Tom Corbin, who once described women as a "lesser cut of meat", but word is his opponent isn't much better. I'd rather see him go down to a Democrat anyway. If that's possible.
Coroner
I'm rather torn on this one. Parks Evans, Jr. is in or running for his seventh term, and experience seems to be valuable in this case. I'm also turned off by Stacey Owens big sign on my way to and from work. However, Mr. Owens has some mental health organizations and initiatives listed on his webpage and as a person who has had my own battles with mental illness as well as friends who personally dealt with mental illness either themselves or through a loved one, i admire that.
County Council District 20
This one is kinda personal. The Democrat running is not only a member of the LGBTQ community, but she lead Mayor Pete's presidential campaign here in the upstate. The two Republican candidates both state biblical teachings as their guiding principles, but my information suggests that Steve Shaw may be much more reasonable than Christy Cates Bright. Mrs. Bright is the daughter of retiring councilman Sid Cates who was one of the big supporters of the 1996 anti-gay ordinance, which got "sunsetted" recently but the religious right now wants to enshrine "traditional values" into Greenville county, basically wanting to make Greenville an "LGBT Free Zone". I got news for them. I ain't going anywhere.
Ballot Questions
The first question is tricky Republican wording. The question reads
"Do you support giving voters the right to register to vote with the political party of their choice? "
As I stated at the beginning, the reason why I can vote in the Republican primary is because we are an open primary state. While the Republicans had no problem telling their followers to vote for Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary to mess things up, what's good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. They want to end that, but worded the question to make it sound like they're giving you something when actually they want to take it away.
The second question is
"Should candidates for public office be limited to having their names listed only once on a ballot for any office in each general election (rather than current law, which allows their name to appear multiple times by representing multiple political parties for the same office)?"
Some examples are candidates running as both Libertarian and Constitution party candidates (which is why I'm no longer supporting the SCLP, the Constitution Party sounds innocuous but they are an extreme right-wing anti-gay and anti-separation of church and state party, the opposite reasons i got involved in the Libertarian party to begin with).
We also have some Democratic candidates accept the nomination of the "Working Families" Party. Some say it confuses voters but I can see how someone may be reluctant to vote for a Democrat, but might vote for the same person as a "Working Families" candidate. I myself one year, when I was still in my "Never Democrat" mode, voted for a Green Party candidate even though he was also running as a Democrat. That also happened to coincide with my "3rd Party" phase.
I can see the benefits of each. But it would be easy and less confusing to list candidates once and have one or more parties listed beside their name. I may vote 'yes' because i don't like saying 'no' too much.
Several ex-lovers can attest to that.
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