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On February 11, the South Carolina House Judiciary Committee passed HB 3262. It would require candidates seeking the nomination of a party that nominates by convention to pay a filing fee during March of an election year. It has 21 sponsors, all Republicans: Russell Fry, Chip Huggins, Sylleste Davis, William Newton, Garry Smith, Adam Morgan, James Burns, Shannon Erickson, Linda Bennett, Anne Thayer, Bill Taylor, Bruce Bryant, Jason Elliott, Mark Willis, Raye Felder, Sandy McGarry, V. Stephen Moss, Patrick Haddon, Steven Long, Thomas Pope, and Cal Forrest.
If enacted, the bill would be unconstitutional for two different reasons. The first is that the Fourth Circuit ruled in Dixon v Maryland State Board of Elections, 878 F 2d 776 (1989) that states can’t require filing fees, unless the purpose of the filing fee is to keep a ballot uncrowded. In the Dixon case, the court struck down a $290 fee to file as a declared write-in candidate. The rationale was that a wri