Associated Press (AP):
South Carolina state senators approved new districts for the Senate and House Tuesday, but legal challenges are almost certain. “This lack of competition is a very serious threat to representative democracy. General election votes become meaningless because the outcome is certain, or nearly so,” Teague said.

The Post & Courier, December 1, 2021
BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Even when you bake in an expectation that the new election districts are going to ensure that Republicans continue to dominate the House for the next decade, their SC House proposal is beyond the pale. Yet when the League presented its findings to the House’s redistricting panel, no one asked a question or tried to dismiss the findings. Just silence. Which is astounding, given how astounding those numbers are. And embarrassing, since it suggests that House members don’t care how obvious their extreme partisanship is.

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.