COLUMBIA, SC — Voters Tuesday appeared likely to approve an initiative to allow South Carolina’s gubernatorial candidates to choose their own lieutenant governor candidates to run on the same ticket.

The amendment sets 2018 as the first year that gubernatorial candidates would choose running mates.

Gov. Nikki Haley backed the amendment. She failed this year to persuade the Legislature to allow her to pick her own running mate in 2014, when she is up for re-election.

Currently, the lieutenant governor presides over the Office on Aging and the state Senate. After 2018, he or she would not preside over the Senate. The Senate would choose its own presiding officer.