South Carolina rural voters fear being ‘redistricted’ into irrelevancy

(The Center Square) – South Carolina’s 5.12 million residents will be divided into 46 state senate districts, each comprised of 111,270 people, under a tentative redistricting plan introduced by a senate subcommittee in public hearings this week.

Only 14 of South Carolina’s 46 counties have enough residents to support a senate district, meaning voters in most counties will be subdivided into at least two districts, or lumped into sprawling rural districts with diminishing efficacy as the state’s urban/suburban areas continue to grow while rural populations decline or stagnate.

And rural voters let senators on the 23-member Senate Judiciary Committee’s Redistricting Subcommittee know they know that during the first two of 10 public hearings scheduled to collect input on reconfiguring South Carolina’s seven Congressional districts and 46 state senate districts before the 2022 elections.

Saluda County, population 21,000, is divided into three senate districts, meaning none of its three senators – two Republicans, one Democrat – is focused on the county’s interests, Sumter County Democratic Party Chair Sharon Holloway said during Tuesday’s first hearing in Columbia’s Gressette Building.

None of the three senators lives in Saluda County, she said, and asked the entire county be incorporated into one senate district.

“We are a unique community” and should be represented together, Holloway said, drawing applause from about 30 who attended.

Lee County, population 17,000, is divided into two senate districts, meaning what clout the small county’s voters could have is “districted” into irrelevancy, claimed several residents who were among the 50 who attended Wednesday’s hearing in Sumter.

“We are struggling. We have struggled all my life,” lifelong Lee County resident Becky Yarborough said, noting because county voters have little efficacy under the current district map, “Economic base, job opportunities – we don’t have a lot of opportunities.”

The redistricting panel, led by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Rankin, R-Horry, convenes Thursday evening in Rock Hill, with seven more hearings scheduled through Aug. 12.

Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence, chairs the eight-member House redistricting committee that will reconfigure 124 state House districts and collaborate with the Senate on the seven Congressional districts. Its first meeting is Tuesday in Columbia.

The subcommittees aim to have tentatively redrawn districts ready by October for the Republican-controlled Legislature to approve during its 2022 session in time for summer primaries and November’s general election.

According to preliminary 2020 Census data released in April by the U.S. Census Bureau – final figures are due Aug. 16 – there are nearly 5.12 million people living in South Carolina, about 11% more than a decade ago, but not enough to add an eighth U.S. House seat.

Preliminary numbers confirm what has been obvious for a generation – rapid growth occurring in, and in the areas around, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and suburban counties south of Charlotte, N.C., is diluting the political relevancy of stagnating rural areas that are being “left behind.”

Critics during both hearings argued the state’s redistricting process, which essentially allows elected officials to chisel out their own electorates, doubly penalizes rural voters by making them fodder for gerrymandering by incumbents.

“Protecting self-interest is a powerful motivator, and few things impact the self-interest of legislators more than redistricting,” South Carolina League of Women Voters Vice President Lynn Teague told the subcommittee Tuesday. “This shows in our current maps: a substantial majority of South Carolina’s voters had no real choice when they voted in November 2020.”

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