Are you tired of chaos? Tired of cheating? Tired of no respect for voters? Rigging election maps is cheating.
Under heavy pressure from Washington, D.C., South Carolina’s General Assembly is moving forward with an effort to draw a new congressional map for our state. They are working to enact a map that would change South Carolina's congressional map from 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat to 7 Republicans. This is being attempted in a state in which about 40% of voters typically vote for a Democrat.
Background
On May 8 the House Judiciary Committee’s Constitutional Laws Subcommittee voted, 3-2, in favor of H.5684, a bill to move Congressional primaries from June 9 to August 11 to accommodate a completely changed congressional map.
The map that is proposed now will require redefining ALL of South Carolina’s congressional districts, because people removed from one district don’t just pack up and leave the state. They have to go to another district. This will be chaotic for candidates, voters, and election workers. Candidates will have to file for primaries again and start raising money to address newly defined districts. Citizens who have already voted, including overseas military, will have their votes discarded and must vote again. There will be millions in costs for taxpayers, at both state and county levels.
Attempts to justify this refer to the recent Louisiana v. Callais decision of the U. S. Supreme Court. This decision ended racially defined districts created to fulfill the Voting Rights Act (VRA). However, while CD 6 was originally created to satisfy the VRA and protect minority interests, through successive redistricting cycles it has been increasingly redesigned to take in as many Democrats as could be packed into it in order to diminish their presence in adjacent districts. It has become a partisan gerrymander.
In legal challenges both the federal and state Supreme Courts have said that the South Carolina map is a partisan, not a racial gerrymander. There is no legal necessity for South Carolina to draw a new map. The need is entirely that of an apparently unlimited wish for power for one party.
South Carolina’s Chief Justice put it well in his statement in the case League of Women Voters of South Carolina v. Alexander:
“[W]e are seeing — and will continue to see — state legislatures race to further minimize and perhaps erase the representation of the state's minority political party in Congress. These results ... collectively have the effect of diminishing our constitutional republic as a whole. This is a troubling prospect for those who adhere to our nation's founding principle that the People are sovereign."
The League of Women Voters is nonpartisan. We do not support or oppose any party. However, we are very committed to helping South Carolina’s voters have a meaningful voice in how we are governed. Our current maps are distorted by partisan gerrymandering, but this is an attempt to take all choice away from hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians, leaving them with no one to represent their interests in Washington.
This coming Tuesday, May 12, the House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee will meet again to take up H.5683, which defines the specific map in H.5683.
The Senate hasn’t acted yet, but they could move this coming week (the last of the session), to allow consideration of the new map during the “Sine Die" session in a few weeks.
Take action
- Call both your Senator and your House Represenative. Tell them that they must vote NO on this midterm redistricting, forced on South Carolina by outside players who have no interest in our people or, apparently in the preservation of representative democracy.
- Pack the house! Be there on Tuesday, May 12 at 9 am at the Blatt Building on the State House grounds (arrive early)
- Submit testimony on the proposed map at HJudConstitutionalLaws [at] schouse.gov.
- Share this action alert with friends and family members.
Talking points
- South Carolina’s current map is gerrymandered but it has been found constitutional by both the U.S. Supreme Court and the S. C. Supreme Court. There is no legal necessity for reconsideration.
- State legislatures redrawing their maps mid-cycle reflects political gamesmanship that erodes public trust, the foundation of representative democracy.
- The redistricting process should include opportunities for public input and comment. The process contemplated at present provides no such opportunity.
- A new map would require cancelling or partially rescheduling the June 9 primaries and beginning again with a new filing process and a new primary schedule, although some military voters have already voted. This would be an administrative burden and a burden for candidates and voters.
- People who have donated to their preferred candidate during the months of campaigning that have already occurred might find that they are no longer in a district associated with that candidate.
- Implementing a different congressional map would cost substantial state and county money, as arrangements long in place for the primaries would have to be revisited.
- This midterm redistricting has been initiated by a national administration wishing to protect its own interest, fundamentally at odds with the democratic ideals of our nation.
