In every general election year, the Executive Director of the State Election Commission and the director of each county board of voter registration and elections shall:

1. (1) accept filings during the regular business hours on the regular business days of the filing period as required by Section 7-11-15;
2. (2) place an advertisement to appear two weeks before the filing period begins in a newspaper of general circulation in the county at least five by seven inches in size that notifies the public of the dates of the filing periods, the offices that may be filed for, the place and street address where filings may be made, and the hours that an authorized person will be present to receive filings.

HISTORY: 1989 Act No. 166, Section 1, eff January 1, 1990; 1996 Act No. 434, Section 6, eff June 4, 1996; 2013 Act No. 61, Section 6, eff June 25, 2013; 2018 Act No. 142 (H.4977), Section 7, eff March 15, 2018.

Code Commissioner's Note

Pursuant to the directive in 2014 Act No. 196, Section 8, at the direction of the Code Commissioner, references in this section to county election commissions or commissioners or county boards of voter registration were changed to the "Board of Voter Registration and Elections" and board members as appropriate.

Editor's Note

2013 Act No. 61, Sections 11, 14, provide as follows:

"SECTION 11. In order to educate various parties regarding the provisions contained in this act, the following notifications must be made:

"(1) The State Election Commission must notify each county election commission of the provisions of this act.

"(2) The State Election Commission must post the provisions of this act on its website.

"(3) Each state party executive committee must notify their respective county executive parties of the provisions of this act."

"SECTION 14. This act takes effect upon preclearance approval by the United States Department of Justice or approval by a declaratory judgment issued by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, whichever occurs first."

The amendment by 2013 Act No. 61 became effective June 25, 2013, see South Carolina Libertarian Party v. South Carolina State Election Com'n, 407 S.C. 612, 757 S.E.2d 707 (2014).

Effect of Amendment

The 1996 amendment redesignated paragraphs (1) through (3) as paragraphs (2) through (4), and inserted a new paragraph (1); and in paragraph (4), as so redesignated, substituted "periods" for "period".

The 2013 amendment rewrote the section.

2018 Act No. 142, Section 7, deleted the (A) identifier preceding "In every election year"; in (1), substituted "accept filings during the regular business hours on the regular business days of the filing period" for "establish regular hours of not less than four hours a day during the final seventy-two hours of the filing period in which the director or some person he designates must be present to accept filings"; and made a nonsubstantive change in (2).