Beth Padget thinks the South Carolina Democratic Party had a point about filing on Sunday. Here is what she said in a recent blog:
Sometimes it’s fun just to sit at your desk and await the “ping” alerting you to an e-mail. Especially during a super-charged election year.
Well the South Carolina Democratic Party wants you to know their people want to be in church on Sunday morning – not sitting around some office waiting for stragglers to file for office.
All kidding aside, I think the Democrats have a point. After all, this is South Carolina, buckle of the Bible Belt. But we have state laws that set the filing period for candidates running for a bunch of offices. By statute, the candidates file between noon on March 16 and noon on March 30. Well, this year, those dates come on Sundays.
And, I’m not good enough to do the math, but it’s got to be possible for the closing of the filing period to come on Easter Sunday. The opening fell on Palm Sunday this year.
So a short while ago, I get an e-mail from the South Carolina Democratic Party that was really addressed to state Attorney General Henry McMaster. Now, I hadn’t realized that his office had rendered an opinion that to me (if the quote is correct) is pretty unintelligible. It says, according to the Dems release: “I am unaware of any prohibitions to the various committees with whom the statements of intention of candidacy are to be filed receiving such on a Sunday in order to comply with such provision.”
Now, the Dems pretended they understood that sentence, so much so that they fired back, “Unfortunately, this opinion runs counter to South Carolina’s principles, and fails to consider that, when the ‘various committees’ accept filing, actual people have to be present regardless of their preference to be in church.” Now that I can understand. It means lots of people in South Carolina go to church on Sunday, and they’d prefer not having to worry about candidates needing to file for office.
As Carol Fowler wrote on behalf of the S.C. Democratic Party, “Having candidates file for office between 8 a.m. and noon on a Sunday may not be illegal, but it goes against the values of our state, which for a great many of us include Sunday morning worship services. I am disappointed that these values weren’t taken into consideration when you rendered your opinion.”
So, how about this: Change the silly state laws so the filing period doesn’t open and end on a Sunday.
Don’t you think this would be a good idea?
Posted at 9:05 am on 04/09/08
Posted by Gene
I think this is absurd. Being South Carolina aside, who cares what day a particular date falls on. The fact that at some point that date will fall on a Sunday or “heaven” forbid Easter Sunday is inconsequential, what about if it falls on a Saturday? Saturday is Sabbath some people…
There’ always a chance that your taxes will be due on a Sunday too, should we change that as well?
I say, as a Democrat living in South Carolina, can we please keep religious randomness out of our Democracy?
Posted at 1:26 pm on 04/16/08
Posted by Mimi
Gene’s argument (posted 4/9) is not helped by his reference to taxes being due on Sunday, since even the IRS allows the last day of filing to float when April 15th falls on a Saturday or a Sunday: in either of those instances the due date changes to the Monday immediately following. Since the South Carolina Department of Revenue follows suit, it should be easy enough for the Legislature to borrow the wording of the governing statute for this.
Posted at 9:28 pm on 04/19/08
Posted by Gene
My “argument” isn’t to debate the ins-and-outs of what dates fall on Sundays and how other government organizations handle it. My point is specifically to ask that we leave religion out of our democracy all together. The religious connotations to Sundays are relative to your particular religion and therefore doesn’t hold merit to those of us who don’t share the same beliefs.
If you want to argue not having a government filing date fall on a weekend due to it not being a business day go for it, but again I plead to all, please leave your religion out of my government…