Title 8, Public Officers and Employees

The House and Senate Invitations Committees shall keep an updated list of invitations accepted by the body. The list must be available for public inspection during regular business hours.

In addition to the statement of economic interests required pursuant to Section 8-13-1110, a person required to file the statement shall further report to the appropriate supervisory office the name of any person he knows to be a lobbyist as defined in Section 2-17-10(13) or a lo…

A person required to file a statement of economic interests under this chapter annually shall file, pursuant to Section 8-13-365, an updated statement for the previous calendar year, no later than noon on March thirtieth of each calendar year. If the person has filed the descript…

A consultant must file a statement for the previous calendar year with the appropriate supervisory office no later than twenty-one days after entering into a contractual relationship with the State or a political subdivision of the State and must file an update within ten days fr…

(A) The Senate Ethics Committee and the House of Representatives Ethics Committee must forward a copy of each statement filed with it to the State Ethics Commission within five business days of receipt. (B) Within five business days of receipt, a copy of all statements of economi…

(A) The appropriate supervisory office may, in its discretion, determine that errors or omissions on statements of economic interests are inadvertent and unintentional and not an effort to violate a requirement of this chapter and may be handled as technical violations not subjec…

(A) An elective official or the elective official's agent may not knowingly solicit a contribution from an employee in the elective official's area of official responsibility. (B) A public official or public employee may not provide an advantage or disadvantage to a public employ…

The State Ethics Commission may charge a ten dollar fee to partially offset the cost of providing ethics education and training programs, to include costs associated with travel, including, but not limited to, mileage, lodging, and meals, as well as, costs associated with handout…

The State Ethics Commission, Senate Ethics Committee, and House of Representatives Ethics Committee may levy an enforcement or administrative fee on a person who is found in violation, or who admits to a violation, pursuant to Title 2 or Title 8. The fee must be used to reimburse…

As used in this article: (1) "Appropriate supervisory office" means: (a) the State Ethics Commission for all candidates for public office in this State except for members or staff, including staff elected to serve as officers of or candidates for the office of State Senator or St…

For purposes of this article, candidates elected jointly as provided in Section 8, Article IV of the South Carolina Constitution, 1895, must be considered a single candidate. The gubernatorial candidate is responsible for: (1) establishing a single candidate committee for contrib…

(A) A candidate, committee, or ballot measure committee must maintain and preserve an account of: (1) the total amount of contributions accepted by the candidate, committee, or ballot measure committee; (2) the name and address of each person making a contribution and the amount …

(A) A committee, except an out-of-state committee, which receives or expends more than five hundred dollars in the aggregate during an election cycle to influence the outcome of an elective office must file a statement of organization with the State Ethics Commission no later tha…

(A) The statement of organization of a committee or a ballot measure committee must include: (1) the full name of the committee or ballot measure committee; (2) the complete address and telephone number of the committee or ballot measure committee; (3) the date the committee or b…

(A) Upon the receipt or expenditure of campaign contributions or the making of independent expenditures totaling an accumulated aggregate of five hundred dollars or more, a candidate or committee required to file a statement of organization pursuant to Section 8-13-1304(A) must f…

(A) Upon the receipt or expenditure of campaign contributions or the making of independent expenditures totaling, in an accumulated aggregate, two thousand five hundred dollars or more, a ballot measure committee required to file a statement of organization pursuant to Section 8-…

(A) All persons required to file certified campaign reports pursuant to the provisions of this article must file those reports with the appropriate supervisory office. (B) The Ethics Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives must forward a copy of each statement f…

Except as is required for the separation of funds and expenditures under the provisions of Section 8-13-1300(7), a candidate shall not establish more than one campaign checking account and one campaign savings account for each office sought, and a committee shall not establish mo…

(A) Within an election cycle, a candidate or anyone acting on his behalf shall not solicit or accept, and a person shall not give or offer to give to a candidate or person acting on the candidate's behalf: (1) a contribution which exceeds: (a) three thousand five hundred dollars …

(A) Notwithstanding Section 8-13-1314(A)(1), within an election cycle, a candidate may not accept or receive contributions from a political party through its party committees or legislative caucus committees, and a political party through its party committees or legislative caucu…

If a candidate has a debt from a campaign for an elective office, the candidate may accept contributions to retire the debt, even if the candidate accepts contributions for another elective office or the same elective office during a subsequent election cycle, as long as those co…

For purposes of this article: (1) A contribution made on or before the seventh day after a primary is attributed to the primary. However, in the event of a primary runoff, all contributions made after the day of the primary and continuing through the seventh day after the primary…

(A) A person may not contribute to a committee and a committee may not accept from a person contributions aggregating more than three thousand five hundred dollars in a calendar year. (B) A person may not contribute to a committee and a committee may not accept from a person a ca…

(A) A person shall not make an anonymous contribution to a candidate, committee, or ballot measure committee, and a candidate, committee, or ballot measure committee shall not accept an anonymous contribution from an individual except at a ticketed event where food or beverages a…

(A) A loan is considered a contribution from the maker or the guarantors of the loan and is subject to the contribution limitations of this article. (B) A loan to a candidate must be by written agreement. (C) The proceeds of a loan made to a candidate under the following conditio…

(A) A candidate for statewide office or the candidate's family member must not be repaid, for a loan made to the candidate, more than twenty-five thousand dollars in the aggregate after the election. (B) A candidate for an elective office other than those specified in subsection …

Contributions by each spouse are considered separate contributions and are not attributable to the other spouse. Contributions by unemancipated children under eighteen years of age are considered contributions by their parents. Fifty percent of the contributions are attributed to…

Notwithstanding Section 8-13-1332(3), a corporation or committee of a corporation may solicit the shareholders and executive or administrative personnel of the corporation and its subsidiaries, branches, divisions, affiliates and their families. For purposes of this section, all …

It is unlawful for: (1) a committee or ballot measure committee to make a contribution or expenditure by using: (a) anything of value secured by physical force, job discrimination, financial reprisals, or threat of the same; (b) dues, fees, or other monies required as a condition…

(A) Not-for-profit corporations and committees formed by not-for-profit corporations may solicit contributions from the general public. (B) An organization or a committee of an organization may solicit contributions from the general public. (C)(1) A legislative special interest c…

Notwithstanding Section 8-13-1332, a corporation or organization and their committees may through biannual seminars or at the time of hiring nonexecutive and nonadministrative personnel provide educational materials to such personnel explaining their organization, purposes, and o…

(A) No public official, candidate, public employee, or committee may accept or solicit campaign contributions on the State Capitol grounds, including the office complexes located on them, or in any building which houses the principal office of a statewide officer. (B) No public o…

(A) The following persons personally may not solicit, verbally or in writing, a contribution to a candidate: (1) a law enforcement officer while in uniform; (2) a judge or candidate for judicial office; (3) a solicitor, an assistant solicitor, or an investigator in a solicitor's …

(A) Except as provided in subsections (B) and (E), a candidate or public official shall not make a contribution to another candidate or make an independent expenditure on behalf of another candidate or public official from the candidate's or public official's campaign account or …

No person who has been awarded a contract with the State, a county, a municipality, or a political subdivision thereof, other than contracts awarded through competitive bidding practices, may make a contribution after the awarding of the contract or invest in a financial venture …

(A) A public utility may not include in its operating expenses a contribution or expenditure to influence an election or to operate a political action committee. (B) A person may not solicit from a candidate, committee, political party, or other person, money or other property as…

(A) A person may not use or authorize the use of public funds, property, or time to influence the outcome of an election. (B) This section does not prohibit the incidental use of time and materials for preparation of a newsletter reporting activities of the body of which a public…

(A) No candidate, committee, public official, or political party may use campaign funds to defray personal expenses which are unrelated to the campaign or the office if the candidate is an officeholder nor may these funds be converted to personal use. The prohibition of this subs…

(A) A candidate for elective office may use or permit the use of contributions solicited for or received by the candidate for that office to further the candidacy of the individual for a different office as long as the contributions have been received on or before December 31, 19…

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 8-13-1350, a candidate may use or permit the use of contributions solicited for or received by the candidate to further the candidacy of the individual for an elective office other than the elective office for which the contributions were…

A candidate, committee, or other person which makes an expenditure in the distribution, posting, or broadcasting of a communication to voters supporting or opposing a public official, a candidate, or a ballot measure must place his name and address on the printed matter or have h…

(A) A person who becomes a candidate by filing a statement of intention of candidacy seeking nomination by political party primary or political party convention must electronically file a statement of economic interests for the preceding calendar year pursuant to Section 8-13-365…

Except as provided in Section 8-13-365, certified campaign reports must be filed on a format specified by the State Ethics Commission. The reports filed must be typed or printed in ink on forms supplied by the commission. A report may be filed with the commission on a computerize…

(A) The State Ethics Commission shall develop a contribution and expenditure reporting form which must include: (1) a designation as a pre-election or quarterly report and, if a pre-election report, the election date; (2) the candidate's name and address or, in the case of a comm…

(A) If a candidate or committee has not accepted any contributions and has not made any expenditures during a reporting period, the candidate or a duly authorized officer of the committee must file a statement of inactivity. (B) A statement of inactivity must include the candidat…

The appropriate supervisory office must send a notice of obligation to report and reporting forms by first class mail no less than thirty days before the filing date for each reporting period. A candidate or committee is not relieved of reporting responsibilities if the notice or…