A HISTORY OF JUDICIAL ELECTIONS IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Some may say that judicial elections are not what they used to be in South Carolina. In 1940, it was not until the 71st round of balloting that Taylor Stukes received the votes needed for election to the Supreme Court of South Carolina. In 1966 and 1967, Bruce Littlejohn required only 37 ballots to be elected to the Court, but the vote spanned 344 days and the election of a new General Assembly, before Littlejohn was able to defeat Julius B. Ness, George Bell Timmerman, and Rembert Dennis. Today, a judicial election rarely progresses past a first ballot. By the time a vote occurs, candidates are often unopposed.

One key element of judicial elections has not changed, however. Since the earliest days of statehood, the General Assembly of South Carolina has elected most state judges by a majority vote of the House of Representatives and Senate sitting in joint session. Currently all statewide judicial positions, including those on the South Carolina Supreme Court, the South Carolina Court of Appeals, circuit courts, family courts, and the Administrative Law Court, are elected by the General Assembly. The Legislature typically does not elect judges of courts that are more local in nature. Even for most of those courts, however, the General Assembly has retained a significant role of advice and consent in the selection of judges.

Masters-in-Equity, for example, are appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the General Assembly. To be appointed, a candidate must also have been found qualified after merit screening by the Judicial Merit Selection Commission.(1) Traditionally, governors have appointed the candidate nominated by the local legislative delegation. Local magistrate judges also are appointed by the governor, but upon the advice and consent of only the Senate.(2) In a manner similar to the appointment of masters-in-equity, governors traditionally appoint magistrates who have been nominated by the local Senate delegation. Municipal judges are elected by the local government’s council.(3)

Today, the only judges directly elected by popular vote are probate judges.(4) Until county courts were abolished in 1979 as a part of the unification of the state court system, different statutory authorizations meant that some counties elected their county judge by popular vote,(5) while others utilized an appointment process. For example, Richland County elected its county court judge by popular vote.(6) The Act creating Charleston’s county court provided, instead, that judges were to be appointed by the governor upon the recommendation of a majority of the county’s legislative delegation.(7)

For those positions filled by election in the General Assembly, merit selection has modified the nomination process in recent decades. The decision-making authority, however, has been held consistently by the Legislature for nearly 250 years, since March 27, 1776, when the General Assembly elected William Henry Drayton as chief justice.

(1) S.C. Code Ann. § 14-11-20 (1976).
(2) S.C. Code Ann. § 22-2-10 (1976).
(3) S.C. Code Ann. § 14-25-15 (1976).
(4) For the historical background of probate court elections, see Part Three, text accompanying notes 13-17.
(5) S.C. Code § 15-605 (1952). More than half the counties were expressly exempted from this requirement.
(6) S.C. Code § 12-752 (1952),
(7) 1962 S.C. Acts, No. 776, at p. 1898.