S.C. House and Senate Release Initial Redistricting Plans

Redistricting committees in both the South Carolina House and Senate have adopted initial proposals for their new district maps as working documents, but they faced different reactions from the public.

While the Senate’s proposal saw little opposition and was advanced out of committee after less than 20 minutes of discussion, the House map elicited much more pushback. In their first public hearing to receive testimony about the House map, lawmakers spent several hours listening to complaints that the 124 districts, as drawn, discouraged competition, divided communities of interest and were released with insufficient time to allow for informed public comment.

The committee ultimately voted to adopt the House plan as a working document on Nov. 10, but Chairman Jay Jordan, R-Florence, announced at the end of the meeting he would leave written public comment open until Nov. 15, delaying a formal vote to advance the draft proposal until the next meeting of the House Judiciary Committee. That meeting was slated to take place yesterday, Nov. 16. 
 
Both chambers have said they plan to adopt new maps and a new U.S. Congressional map in December.

Read news coverage of the redistricting process here.