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.

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.

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.

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.