In the News: Redistricting

Why are we having so much discussion about redistricting half-way through the decade? Redistricting has historically only been done after a census to realign districts to reflect population changes since the last district. Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters US, explains why redistricting is at a crossroads and how voters can achieve fair representation in this blog post.

The LWVSC is the lead plaintiff in League of Women Voters v. Alexander redistricting of SC District 1, which is for the US House of Representatives. Read the details of the case and its current status.

“South Carolina’s constitution protects voters from having their voices manipulated for partisan gain,” said Adriel I. Cepeda Derieux, Deputy Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “Legislators’ admission that they drew the State’s congressional map to entrench one political party in power is not just undemocratic — it’s against the law. Today, we’ve asked the Court to restore the State Constitution’s promise of free and fair elections where every South Carolinian’s vote counts the same.”

And after Texas redrew its congressional map recently, SC Representative Ralph Norman said that SC should redistrict to change SC District 6, which is held by US Representative Jim Clyburn.

"What they're doing in Texas is they just produced an instant map that suited them. They're not even pretending to have public hearings. They're not pretending to have, you know, subcommittees where people can go and say, 'This isn't how it should be.' They just want to push it through," said Lynn Teague with the South Carolina League of Women Voters, a non-partisan voting advocacy group.