SC Primary Besieged by Lawsuits, Controversy

In less than 24 hours, millions of SC voters can head to the polls.

But they won't be able to vote for just anyone on the ballot.

Following SC Supreme Court rulings in May () and last Tuesday (), nearly 250 candidates have been ruled ineligible for election by county party leaders.

According to SC Election Commission spokesperson Chris Whitmire, 131 are Republicans and 117 are Democrats.

While most of those names will not be on Tuesday ballots, the 54 additional names (48 Republicans and six Democrats) removed in the past week will be and election officials will be reminding voters who they can and cannot elect.

The situation has raised anger in many state officials, including SCGOP chairman Chad Connelley and — but neither are able to change anything.

And the candidates have been left to decide their best recourse.

In one Upstate Senate race, .

Many candidates, , have decided to instead seek office by running petition campaigns that require signatures to make the November ballots.

And others are working on legal action, including . 

On Monday, Tommie Reece, Ann Smith, Bob Shirley, John Pettigrew and Robert Tinsley have filed a lawsuit in Anderson/Greenwood Division of the U.S. District Court over being booted off the ballots in their respective races.