Article snippet: The South Carolina Republican Party appeared to violate its own rules on Saturday when the party's executive committee voted to cancel next year's primary election. The executive committee voted nearly unanimously to cancel the primary, state party chairman Drew McKissick said, because MORE (R-S.C.) -- who served two terms as governor of South Carolina -- is also considering joining the field. Any of those candidates may decide to sue the South Carolina GOP, some Republican insiders said, because Saturday's vote ran contrary to the state party's rules. The rule that governs South Carolina's presidential preference primary allows the state party to cancel the primary only by a vote at the state party convention, within two years of the subsequent primary. South Carolina Republicans did not vote to cancel the primary at either of its last two conventions. The rule gives the state Republican executive committee power to reverse a convention's decision to cancel the primary if "circumstances surrounding the presidential election shall have substantially changed such that a primary would be deemed advisable." But it does not give the executive committee the opposite power -- the power to unilaterally cancel the primary. "This shady backroom deal where a small group of party insiders makes a big decision that stops thousands of voters from participating in the process appears to violate party rules and is precisely the kind of thing that turns people off to politics," ... Link to the full article to read more