COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group of South Carolina state senators will continue to travel around the state this week with three more public hearings about how to draw new districts for South Carolina House and Senate seats as well as the U.S. House.
Joining the redistricting work this week is a House committee holding an organizational meeting Tuesday at the Statehouse.
Both the House ad hoc committee and Senate subcommittee will use the new 2020 U.S. Census data to draw maps for the 46 state Senate districts, 124 state House districts and seven U.S. House districts.
The House committee has five Republicans and three Democrats.
The two chambers usually don't alter the other chamber's map. Both chambers will work together on the U.S. House map.
The Senate subcommittee already has held three public meetings on the maps. They are asking citizens to talk about what they want and don't want done when the maps are drawn because the detailed Census data has not been released.
Senators said they expect more public hearings before their proposed maps are sent to the full Senate this fall.
This week's hearings are Monday at Greenville Technical College in Greenville; Tuesday at Florence-Darlington Technical College in Florence; and Wednesday at Technical College of the Lowcountry in Beaufort. All meetings start at 6:30 p.m. and will be streamed at the South Carolina Statehouse website.
The panel of four Republican senators and three Democrats will take testimony both in person and online.
South Carolina added nearly 500,000 people from 2010 to 2020 to become the 23rd largest state in the U.S. with 5.1 million people, according to the Census.