Former Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C. and Democrat candidate Elizabeth Colbert-Busch faced off Tuesday in the special election to fill now-Sen. Tim Scott's, R-S.C., former House of Representatives seat. Scott formerly represented the Palmetto State's First Congressional District, comprising mostly of the US 17 as well as the western suburbs of Charleston.
However, it was revealed that the official ballot from the South Carolina State Election Commission included Elizabeth Colbert-Busch's name twice. Colbert-Busch, the sister of Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert is listed as both the candidate for the Democratic Party and Working Families Party. Mark Sanford's name appears at the top of the ballot, as most states abide by the governorship-party-preference rule. Nikki Haley, a Republican, is the current South Carolina governor. Eugene Platt is running for the seat on the Green Party ticket. The candidacy of Platt, a former district commissioner in James Island, S.C., garnered the Green candidate 7 percent in the latest poll, making Sanford and Colbert-Busch's numbers neck-and-neck at 46 percent as of May 6, 2013.
The Weekly Standard reported that Chris Whitmire, an official at the election commission found "no prohibition against" a candidate's nomination in two parties in an election in South Carolina. While she is identified as two separate candidates on the ballot and will have both vote tallies listed separately, all votes for the Democrat will be combined to decide whether she garnered enough support overall to beat Platt and Sanford.
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