Lindsey Graham

COLUMBIA — The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch effort by the state Republican Party to remove previously disqualified U.S. Senate candidate Danny Lee Ford II from Republican ballots late Aug. 5 as the first day of early voting came to a close.

The four-page decision comes shortly after a decision by a Richland County circuit court earlier this week to reinstate Ford in the flash Aug. 11 primary to replace late U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham after the former Republican candidate for state agriculture commissioner was disqualified under a newly passed party rule requiring candidates to have voted in at least two out of the last three Republican primaries.

That judge, Daniel Coble, said the rule was excessively vague and could have resulted in a violation of Ford’s constitutional rights. The party, however, argued its First Amendment rights had been violated, and that the party had a right to certify candidates based on some sort of objective criteria to establish they were bona fide, active participants in the party

Unsatisfied, the state Republican Party appealed the decision to the state’s high court one day before the start of early voting Aug. 5, arguing that Coble erred in forcing the party to recognize Ford as a candidate after nearly 2,000 military and absentee ballots had already been mailed out without Ford’s name on them.

“Respectfully, it is impossible to remove someone’s name from a ballot when he was never on the ballot in the first place,” the party’s attorneys wrote in its appeal earlier this week.

The party asked for an emergency stay on the rule by the end of day Aug. 4, hoping to stop Ford from becoming the 10th Republican candidate on the ballot before voters began casting votes early. But on a truncated timeline, the party was simply too late for the court to act.

Before the close of business Aug. 5, several thousand voters had already cast ballots with Ford’s name on them, with efforts to remove him from machines in all 46 counties likely proving an excessive challenge — one South Carolina’s high court was not willing to make.

“Absentee ballots have already been sent and received, without listing Ford as a candidate, while early voting has commenced with ballots bearing Ford's name. If we were to grant a stay of the preliminary injunction and require the Commission to now remove Ford's name from the ballots, the current election process would be thrust into even further disarray,” the court wrote.

Ford will now continue to campaign as normal, though the party has appeared not to recognize him. Despite being a certified candidate at the time, Ford was left off the list of speakers ahead of a planned candidate stump event in Charleston late Aug. 6, while it is unclear whether he will be permitted to speak at another planned party sanctioned event in Florence later this week.