The Post & Courier

Charleston, April 23 - The planned purchase of two trained schnauzers — for a whopping $25,000 each — recently came to light after Charleston County jail officials found invoices and a dossier on the dogs in the public email account of former Detention Chief Deputy Willis Beatty. Beatty ran the jail from 2013 until his ouster last year.

Lynn Teague, an open government advocate with the S.C. League of Women Voters, said she was troubled by the lack of financial oversight for unknown pots of money, the no-bid arrangements for training, and the blurring of professional and personal interests in this episode. “At the very least, (this episode) was handled very badly and it certainly lacks transparency and accountability,” she said. “It doesn’t sound right and it doesn’t smell good.”

Today the SC Senate gave third reading to a much-amended version of H. 4919, which would provide two weeks of no-excuse early voting and related changes in absentee voting. This version also addresses aspects of statewide election administration. This discussion will be lengthy, but these important and complex issues require our attention, even though – as we will discuss – it is quite possible that this entire bill will die next week.

The Sun Times

Developers have made contributions to Horry County Council candidates well over the state’s $1,000-per-candidate-per-election-cycle limit, according to newly released campaign finance reports. “It’s inverting the sense of the law in the sense that no one entity should have undue influence in a campaign,” said Lynn Teague of the South Carolina League of Women Voters.

The League of Women Voters strongly supports the introduction of no-excuse early voting in South Carolina. In-person early voting has been shown not to provide an advantage to any political party.

The proposed bill does not include two extremely important provisions. The certification deadline for South Carolina must be extended, commonly 14 days in other states. South Carolina should also provide "notice and cure" for absentee ballots, so that voters are notified if their ballot is found defective. This would allow qualified electors to fulfill their civic responsibility.