Guest Essay, The State

South Carolina’s General Assembly is moving rapidly toward wrapping up redistricting based on the 2020 census. The current schedule indicates that both House and Senate will have final votes as early as December 6. If their plans do not change, for the next decade most voters for SC House seats and all voters for SC Congressional seats will do nothing in November elections but ratify decisions already baked in by demography or– too often – by legislators at the State House.

Guest Essay, The Post & Courier

Voters in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District have been envied for the past 10 years: they had the distinction of having a choice in the general election. They could — and indeed did — elect both Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, fostering competition that steered candidates of both parties away from hyperpartisanship. Meanwhile, the six other congressional seats in South Carolina — five Republican and one Democratic — were won by margins often exceeding 20%.

Unfortunately, if the S.C. Legislature passes its proposed redistricting maps when lawmakers come back for votes this week and next, South Carolina’s only competitive congressional seat will be gerrymandered out of voters’ control.

The Senate has released their staff proposal for Congressional Districts, and will meet Monday, November 29. In contrast to the Senate plan for Senate districts, which moved in a positive direction toward greater preservation of communities of interest, the Congressional plan does not. Analysis rates the proposal “very bad” on competitiveness and proportionality, “ok” rating on minorities, and “bad” on compactness and splitting.

We are concerned that neither house has released a Congressional plan for public comment. This is especially disturbing because the House has now scheduled a return of the full body for floor debate on redistricting on December 1, 2, and 6. There is little time left.

The House Redistricting Ad Hoc Committee met again and forwarded their plan to the full House Judiciary, which met the same day. The plan was “tweaked” with a series of amendments. The House has not announced any opportunity for public comment on the amended proposal, but we can summarize the League’s evaluation here.