Op Ed

South Carolina is heading into a year that will shape our direction for a long time. Primaries on June 9 and the general election on November 3 will determine leadership across statewide offices: the people who influence voter access, how citizenship is verified, how families navigate school choice, how bodily autonomy is defined, how income‑tax policy hits household budgets, and how agriculture adjusts to a changing economy.

Across the state, the rooms where these conversations are happening tell their own story. When you are in the room, you can see how someone listens, how they handle a tough question, how they treat people whose identities they perceive as different from their own. You can learn a lot from a handshake—and from the choice not to offer one.

WIS 10 TV

South Carolina has agreed to share some voter data with the U.S. Department of Justice after nearly a year of negotiations. State election officials said the agreement includes safeguards, but some voters and advocates have questions. Lynn Teague, LWVSC Vice President, Issues and Action, has questioned whether the federal government has a role to play. “The League of Women Voters would prefer that this process not happen,” she said. “But given that it has happened, we believe that the state has actually done a sound job of protecting voters from the information that we have.” Teague added that ballots remain secretive, but said the real test in this case will come with time and implementation. Watch the interview.

A coalition of 11 leading environmental and advocacy organizations, including the League of Women Voters of South Carolina, filed an amicus curiae brief on April 20 in the South Carolina Supreme Court, urging the Court to uphold the legal doctrine of public importance standing. The brief promotes consistency and fairness in the legal system, ensuring that cases involving broad public harm – such as pollution, habitat destruction or mismanagement of public trust resources – can be heard in court.