2021-22 Bills & Actions

2021-22 Bills & Actions

2021-22 Legislative Advocacy

The League remains focused most intensively on its Making Democracy Work (MDW) campaign: voting and elections, redistricting, and opposition to constitutional convention resolutions. The League, as always, will attempt to advocate on all bills falling within our areas of interest as defined in state and national policies. 

Follow our latest Making Democracy Work (MDW) Network Updates to organizations that share our interests. 

LWVSC 2021-22 Bills of Interest

Summary LWVSC 2021-22 Bills of Interest  Some of the bills of potential interest at present include the following: 

Electoral Democracy:

Procedures for Maintaining Voting Rolls: 

A House ad hoc committee is holding oversight hearings specifically on South Carolina’s procedures for maintaining voting rolls.
 
The League has prepared a background document to inform members and the public about the current process in South Carolina. 
 
The League has submitted written testimony to this House committee, to be accompanied by oral testimony on June 30, 2021.  
 

State Election Commission

H.3444 would reorganize the State Election Commission (SEC). This bill would more evenly distribute commission appointments by political party but also would more directly involve the legislative branch in an executive function by allocating SEC appointments to legislative leadership. This is not desirable in our state, where the General Assembly already dominates our government. The General Assembly has agency oversight powers that are adequate to address concerns that are legitimate for a legislative body. 

S. 129 would place the SEC under the control of the Secretary of State, a partisan office. The League opposes this bill.
 

However, the subcommittee recommended an amendment that was adopted by the full House Judiciary Committee. That amendment returns the Governor’s appointment powers to the original form: five individuals of whom only one does not represent the Governor’s party. The League does not support the combination of greatly increased power in H.3444 in conjunction with an SEC that is far from representative of the diverse electorate in South Carolina. This is a very regrettable combination of power and partisanship.

We also note that the bill greatly increases SEC authority without any accompanying increase in SEC responsibility, either functional or financial. While the SEC would exercise nearly complete control of county election offices, counties would remain entirely responsible for financing and for coping with any difficulties arising from SEC edicts. This is not a reasonable burden for South Carolina’s counties.
 
S. 499 would require Senate advice and consent for the appointment of SEC members and the Executive Director of the SEC broadening the input into these important positions. It would also establish some of the conditions associated with legislative intervention in court cases involving state ethics laws. The League supports this bill. 
 

Voter Registration

H.3496 would require voter registration by party and close primaries to all who are not registered to that party or willing to be registered with that party for the following two years. The League opposes this because it would disenfranchise many voters in our many non-competitive elections. 

Absentee Voting

S.113 places additional restrictions on who can deliver absentee ballots to an elections office, the amount of time available to request an absentee ballot, and more. Our testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, March 16:

 

Redistricting

The League will be very active in attempting to shape the 2021 redistricting process in the interest of voters rather than incumbents or parties. This is discussed in depth at Redistricting

Effective & Accountable Government: 

Federal Constitutional Conventions

Bills have been pre-filed for 2021 that would require a federal constitutional convention under Article V of the Constitution in order to mandate a balanced budget (S. 141) and in other cases also require term limits in Congress and greatly restrict the powers of the federal government (H.3205, S.133, S.33). The League strongly opposes all of these. Our rationale is explained in Resolutions: Opposition to Federal Constitutional Conventions .
 

Ethics

S. 174 would require disclosure of donors and expenditures from those attempting to influence elections. The League supports this bill. 
 
S. 187 would establish requirements for campaign accounts and generate funding to enable the SEC to better monitor campaign spending. The League supports this bill.

Senate Testimony: S.187 Campaign Spending.

Human Rights & Human Services: 

Women’s Reproductive Health 

Efforts continue to outlaw abortions in South Carolina. Supporters of this bill are optimistic that they will succeed with this bill, which is an affront to the bodily autonomy and right to privacy and self-determination of South Carolina’s women. The League has provided testimony to the Senate subcommittee of the Medical Affairs Committee that is hearing this bill.  
 
H.3225 is another bill that would affect women’s reproductive health, but positively. This bill attempts to address the well-documented problem of racial bias affecting perinatal medical care for persons of color, leading to appallingly high levels of maternal and infant death. In our testimony, the League recommends amendments to strengthen the bill. 
 

Education

Education issues have long been of crucial importance for the League, as they are for the State of South Carolina. In 2021 we have offered testimony in the House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee on H.3445, a resolution to propose amending the Constitution of 1895 to provide for the gubernatorial appointment of the Secretary of Education. We support this resolution, with an amendment to ensure that a well-qualified individual is appointed. 
 
The League has testified against efforts to mandate a disruptive and poorly designed civics curriculum through H. 3002.

 

Open Carry of Handguns:  

The national League supports legislation to control violence and opposes legislation that would deregulate handguns.  

 

Healthcare

Senate bill  S.811 would permit anyone working for a healthcare facility to deny care to patients on grounds of their personal beliefs and would prevent providers from making personnel adjustments to accommodate the refusal while maintaining patient services. The League opposes this bill. 

 

Racial Justice and Criminal Justice Reform

The League supports reforms to make our criminal justice system more effective in addressing crimes motivated by hate and also to ensure the just and equitable treatment of all citizens by all elements of the justice system. We identified 36 relevant bills in December 2020 pre-filing alone.

H. 3620 emerged as the hate crimes bill that has been heard in subcommittee. House Testimony: H.3630 Hate Crimes

The Senate has taken up both H. 3620 assent to it by the House and its own bill, S. 14.