Candidate turns in petitions for second ballot slot
Reprinted from Charleston City Paper
by Greg Hambrick
James Island voters didn’t see Eugene Platt’s name on the 2008 ballot, but he’s making up for it this year.
The Statehouse candidate for District 115, who had already been endorsed by the Green Party, will also have his name on the ballot as a petition candidate.
Platt delivered more than 2,000 signatures to the South Carolina Election Commission last week, likely securing a second spot on the ballot.
The candidate is a strong supporter of fusion voting — where a name can appear two or three times for a particular office, with the votes added together. It backfired on him in 2008 when he failed to win the Democratic nomination. Due to a state law preventing a losing primary candidate’s name from appearing on the general election ballot, he was kept out of the November race.
This November, Platt will face off against Democrat incumbent Anne Petterson Hutto and Republican Peter McCoy.