Columbia, SC—Four state representatives walked out in protest of Wednesday’s legislative assembly, which convened to elect judges, for blatant violations of the state constitution.

This was after Rep. Jonathon Hill, of Townville, attempted to force recorded roll call votes on each of the seven judicial races which were originally contested before the contenders dropped out of the race.

Senate President Harvey Peeler

Hill’s efforts were ignored by Senate President Harvey Peeler, who presided over the assembly.

“Article V of the South Carolina Constitution requires the elections of judges be conducted on the record,” Hill said. “However, the legislature routinely sidesteps this requirement by convincing the challengers in contested judicial elections to drop out of the race before the election, so that the remaining judicial candidates can be elected off the record with a voice vote.”

During the joint assembly, Hill appealed to Article III, Section 20 of the South Carolina Constitution, which states that elections cannot be conducted by voice votes unless there is unanimous consent.

He was initially successful. After some debate, President Peeler honored Hill’s request for a roll call vote on the election for Circuit Court At-Large Seat 13. But on every subsequent attempt, Peeler ignored Hill’s request, pretending not to hear him—even though he was joined in his objections by others.

After repeated failures to be recognized by President Peeler, Hill walked out. He was joined by Rep. Josiah Magnuson, of Spartanburg, Rep. Stewart Jones, of Laurens, and Rep. Adam Morgan, of Greenville.

Rep. Jonathan Hill

Hill and the others denounced the judicial election proceedings on Facebook live, calling the election a “farce” and “a sham.”

“They initially recognized Jonathon [Hill], and then they steamrolled him,” Rep. Josiah Magnuson said in the video. “Clearly everybody heard him ask…and clearly everybody heard me ask for a roll call….it is required under the state constitution to have a roll call…and they initially acknowledged that, and then they steamrolled over him….I can’t stand for that. If we’re gonna have farcical judicial elections, I’m not gonna participate.”

Rep. Stewart Jones stated, “What we have in here right now is a sham on South Carolina. It is a sham on our judicial election process.…I’ve got a real problem with that….steamrolling this through today like they’re doing.”

Rep. Hill stated in the video that “Article III, Section 20 of the constitution says that the only way you can have a voice vote on an election in the State of South Carolina is by unanimous consent, and I was depriving them of that unanimous consent, and they flagrantly ignored that in violation of the constitution. I went right up to the podium, and yelled at the top of my lungs at the right time, and he still ignored my objection and my call for a roll call vote.”

“We’re gonna continue pushing for judicial reform,” Hill concluded. “We’ve got to have a judicial selection process that is legal, that is constitutional, and that is moral, and right now we have none of those.”

Michael Reed is Editor of The Standard.