The Charleston Area Subscribed Articles

2/2/2024 Update: Judicial Reform Moves Forward

Submitted by South Carolina in February 2024.

Blog Post

Both houses are actively working on reforming the process of judicial selection. The House Chair outlined 16 recommendations, some quite broad. Neither public election of judges nor gubernatorial appointment is reflected in the recommendations. We applaud Rep. Tommy Pope’s chairmanship of this committee, both for hearing out everyone who wished to speak and for his diligence in organizing the complex body of information.

The Senate has scheduled a Judiciary Subcommittee on Tuesday, Feb 6 with multiple bills considered., invited testimony only.

Lynn Teague, LWVSC VP for State Issues & Advocacy, at the SC Statehouse steps

Submitted by South Carolina in February 2024.

Press Mention

The Post & Courier

Confidence in our elections is essential to the functioning of our representative democracy. In recent years claims of widespread election fraud have undercut that confidence. These claims are at best misinformed, and as in medicine, bad diagnosis can lead to inappropriate treatment. ~Lynn S. Teague, VP for Issues & Action, LWVSC

Submitted by South Carolina in January 2024.

Blog Post

Today the House Judiciary Constitutional Laws Subcommittee forwarded with a favorable recommendation: H.4589, Municipal Election Protests and H.4590, Early Voting Hours. They heard testimony but did not act on H. 4022, Instant Runoff Voting [Municipal Elections), H.4259, Hand Count Audit Act, H.4260, Voter Access and Transparency Act, H.4261, Clean Voter Roll Act, and H.4591, Ranked Choice Voting Ban..

The Subcommittee will meet again to further consider these bills, possibly several times. We cannot afford to ignore the bills with potentially disastrous impacts.

Submitted by South Carolina in January 2024.

Blog Post

House Judiciary Constitutional Laws Subcommittee has just posted an array of voting bills to be heard Thursday, January 25, at 9 AM , Room 516 , Blatt Building. On the agenda: Muncipal Election Protests, Early Voting Hours, Instant Runoff Voting, Hand County Audit, Voter Access and Transparency, Clean Voter Roll Act, and Ranked Choice Voting Ban. The League supports some and not others. We hope that everyone concerned about our elections will review these bills and plan to testify. Testimony can be offered in writing (HjudConstitutionalLaws [at] schouse.gov) or in person.

Submitted by South Carolina in January 2024.

Blog Post

Submitted by South Carolina in January 2024.

Blog Post

The General Assembly returned to the State House on January 9 but to date there has been little or no public attention to issues of elections, voting, redistricting, or the judiciary. The House has been very focused on limiting medical care for persons with gender dysphoria rather than in useful governance issues.

Auditors find no fraud in SC election process, but make some clean-up suggestions

Submitted by South Carolina in January 2024.

Press Mention

South Carolina Daily Gazette

A review of South Carolina’s election process found no fraud that could have swayed results, but auditors do recommend cleaning up the voter rolls more often. The review of records from 2020 through 2023 found zero instances of a non-citizen voting in South Carolina.

Lynne Teague, with the League of Women Voters, said none of the glitches found by auditors should cause anyone to doubt the integrity of South Carolina’s elections. .“People who charge that our elections have no integrity are basically undermining our democracy,” said the vice president of the League’s South Carolina chapter. “There’s nothing in this review that should cause us to question whether we have a system that’s reasonable and fair and has integrity.”

Editorial: Charleston should back effort to allow ranked-choice voting

Submitted by South Carolina in December 2023.

Press Mention

Post & Courier
By Editorial Staff

Leslie Skardon with the League of Women voters joins with representatives of Better Ballot SC, the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce and S.C. Veterans for All Voters to support Charleston’s resolution in favor of ranked-choice voting. Robert Behre/Staff

We believe Charleston Mayor-elect William Cogswell still would be Charleston’s mayor-elect if the city had used a ranked-choice voting system this year rather than the traditional method, which involved both a general municipal election and then a runoff two weeks later; after all, Mr. Cogswell received the most votes the first time around, and more than two-thirds of those castling ballots on Nov. 7 preferred someone other than the incumbent John Tecklenburg.

Charleston is first to seek instant-runoff voting

Submitted by South Carolina in December 2023.

Blog Post

Charleston is first to seek instant-runoff voting
By Skyler Baldwin
Statehouse Report
Statewide advocacy groups are lauding a coming proposal by Charleston leaders who are asking the state legislature to allow municipalities to use instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, in future local elections.

Charleston is first to seek instant-runoff voting

Submitted by South Carolina in December 2023.

Press Mention

The Statehouse Report

Statewide advocacy groups are lauding a coming proposal by Charleston leaders who are asking the state legislature to allow municipalities to use instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, in future local elections. “Ranked-choice voting has the opportunity to move people to the middle and create a sense of camaraderie in our elections where we want to move toward solutions instead of creating more bitterness,” added Leslie Skardon, director of national issues for the League of Women Voters of South Carolina.

League of Women Voters ^®
of The Charleston Area

Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy.

The Charleston Area Subscribed Articles