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.

The independence of the judiciary so that it can provide checks and balances to the other branches of government is fundamental to the integrity and health of our system of government and to the confidence of the public in that system. We believe that Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) process should be amended: (1) to preclude legislative membership, and (2) to raise the cap on the number of qualified applicants’ names submitted to the General Assembly. In addition, the qualifications to serve as magistrate should be more rigorous and judicial budgets should be protected from being singled out for reduction.

The S. C. House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee to Examine the Judicial Selection and Retention Process has begun its work. The Committee is chaired by Rep. Tommy Pope and includes representatives William Bailey, Micah Caskey, Brandon Guffey, Robby Robbins, Ivory Thigpen, Chris Wooten, Weston Newton, Justin Bamberg, Gilda Cobb-Hunter, Russell Ott, Annen Thayer and Spencer Wetmore.

As the US Supreme Court docket moves Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of NAACP closer to its Wednesday, October 11th hearing date, virtual talks on the impacts of those cases for South Carolina Black voters, and for the nation as a whole, are now available online. Among panelists featured: Lynn Teague, LWVSC Vice President, Issues & Action.