redistricting

A Democratic South Carolina senator says he'll wait to debate his radically different map for U.S. House districts before the full Senate. The decision Wednesday by Sen. Dick Hapootlian allowed the Senate Judiciary Committee to pass a map tweaked a little more than the version already passed by the House. The map would likely keep South Carolina sending six Republicans and one Democrat to the U.S. House.

State senators now have another map to consider just when the South Carolina General Assembly appears ready to finish drawing new U.S. House districts. This latest map would make radical changes favorable to Democrats in all seven congressional districts. South Carolina currently sends six Republicans and one Democrat to the U.S. House. This latest map would create two districts with majorities of voters who picked Joe Biden over Donald Trump in 2020, and a third district where Trump won only narrowly. The South Carolina House is expected to vote Wednesday on GOP proposals that would lock in the status quo.

South Carolina lawmakers have heard public testimony over a proposal to redraw the state's U.S. House districts that scales back the sweeping changes suggested in an earlier map. The House's suggested map doesn't significantly redraw the boundaries of the state's existing districts and resembles a proposal put forth by a Senate committee last month. Early analysis shows the state would likely continue to elect six Republicans and one Democrat to the U.S. House with those districts. Some critics testified Wednesday that the new proposal splits up Charleston County to make the coastal 1st District less competitive and dilutes Black voting power.

Two civil rights groups are suing South Carolina over its newly drawn state House maps. The NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union say the maps discriminate against Black people by diluting their voting power. They also say lawmakers are taking too long to approve U.S. House maps. The maps were passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly earlier this month. Leaders pointed out they didn't make significant changes to the districts drawn after the 2010 U.S. Census, which were approved both by judges and federal officials. Lawmakers hope to finish the U.S. House maps when they return for regular session in mid-January.

The Republican controlled state legislature okayed new member districts for the Senate and House of Representatives this week. Relying on numbers from the 2020 census, lawmakers were forced to adjust just about every district due to the state’s rapid population growth. The new census found about a half million more people live in the state than during the last redistricting in 2010.

South Carolina state senators approved new districts for the Senate and House Tuesday, but legal challenges are almost certain before filing begins in March for the 2022 elections.

he South Carolina Senate appears poised to pass its new districts without a lot of opposition this week. The Judiciary Committee approved the plan 22-1 Monday. Changes made to the plan Monday involved only a few precincts, with the most significant switch putting all of Greenwood County in a single district. The full Senate will likely take up the plan Tuesday because rules generally require a waiting period after the bill hits the floor from committee. But the 22 votes for the maps in committee likely means the rest of the Senate is ready to go along too.

The South Carolina House has overwhelmingly approved its new districts that appear to maintain Republican dominance in the chamber and protect many, but not all, incumbents. The 96-14 vote likely locks in the maps, because the Senate traditionally doesn't alter the House maps, and the House does the same for the other chamber. Republican Gov. Henry McMaster also is almost certain to sign off on the plan. Legal challenges to the maps are practically guaranteed, but they aren't significantly different from the districts drawn after the 2010 U.S census. The Senate returns to special session Monday to consider its maps.

The South Carolina House started its redistricting special session with an assurance that they will likely handle nothing but new maps for state House and Senate and U.S. House districts. House members approved a resolution Wednesday requiring them to take up redistricting as their first priority and stay on the bill until it gets all the way through the legislative process. With only three days planned for the special session, that wouldn't give enough time to pass anything else. The most conservative members of the Republican dominated House want the chamber to take up bills banning mandates for vaccines or masks and other COVID-19 items.

Democratic senators say they want more information about how staff members came up with the proposed new maps for U.S. House seats before they can support them. The new maps didn't make wholesale changes in South Carolina's seven U.S. House districts. The biggest changes are around Charleston where more white and likely Republican voters were moved from the majority Black 6th District represented by Democrat Jim Clyburn and into the 1st District represented by Republican Nancy Mace. Joe Cunningham, who in 2018 became] the only Democrat to flip a U.S. House seat in South Carolina in 35 years, says the maps looked like they were drawn by a partisan hack trying to assure Republicans win.