COLUMBIA, S.C. (WCSC) - Next year will be a major one for South Carolina elections, with an open governor’s race, statewide offices, and seats in Congress and at the State House all up for grabs.

But a case that will be before the state Supreme Court next week will decide which candidates appear on South Carolinians’ ballots to represent them on Capitol Hill.

Next Tuesday, justices will hear arguments in a challenge to the state’s Congressional map, which was redrawn after the 2020 census as part of the state’s redistricting process.

But some believe its lines are illegal.

“We believe that we do have a foundation for assuring that people’s votes are meaningful, not just that they can walk into a polling place and click on that machine, but that it will mean something when they do that,” Lynn Teague with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina said.

The League of Women Voters of South Carolina is suing the state over the map, asking the court to strike it down so it cannot be used again and to require the General Assembly to redraw it.

State lawmakers have testified the map’s lines, particularly between the state’s First Congressional District, now held by Republican Nancy Mace, and the Sixth Congressional District, held by Democrat Jim Clyburn, were drawn in a way to retain Republicans’ control over the coastal First, Mace’s, which had previously been much closer to a swing district.

With it, none of South Carolina’s seven districts are considered tossups that a candidate from either party could win, with six solidly red and Clyburn’s solidly blue.

“We have a map in which I’m now sitting in my home in central Columbia, and I’m in exactly the same Congressional district as South of Broad in Charleston. And if anybody thinks that makes sense, I don’t know what’s happening,” Teague said.

The League of Women Voters argues that partisan gerrymandering violates South Carolina’s constitution.

Read more at the link above.