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The South Carolina State House is barreling towards redistricting at a breakneck speed. Something that normally takes months of study to ensure that communities are kept together, that the population numbers match, and that the people are fairly represented is happening in days – presumably with six-year-old data. Some voters have already voted, and this plan would require the Congressional primary to de-couple from the regular primary. That means a second primary for the new congressional maps in August. As we just saw in Louisiana, making changes like this will confuse voters.
Additionally, our Executive Director of the Election Commission has stated just how hard this will be to pull off. Everything is set for the primary to take place in June and the general in November. There were no plans to hold an additional statewide race in August. Our elections are a rigid process designed to reduce mistakes, and this is throwing a wrench right in the middle.
To be clear, Republicans are gerrymandering here, but Democrats do it elsewhere, and both parties have been doing it for years across our country. Now, I’m in favor of redrawing our maps to be fair (and under a reasonable timeframe), but what does fair even mean? Most would say that gerrymandering isn’t fair. Some would argue that the maps we have now are fair, that there are enough Democrats in the state to merit having one Democratic Congressional Representative. Others would say that our current maps aren’t fair because they pack tons of the state’s Democrats into one district. Those Democrats should be spread out to make the other districts more competitive.
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Then what about race? The current maps pack the highest density of black voters into one district, sliding down into Charleston and scooping voters together with Columbia. Still others would argue that Republicans hold the majority so they can make the maps whatever they want. We have a winner take all election system, so let the winner take all.
There are places where one party reigns supreme, where the voice of the opposition is drowned by rules that make it impossible for them to win, where we know the election results before election day. We know the names of those places: Russia, China, North Korea, and more, all dictatorships where democracy is a joke at best. In those places, the winner has indeed taken all.
Rigged maps, gerrymandering make the results of many congressional elections all but certain. Organizations like FairVote predict the outcomes of elections with shockingly accurate results – and it’s not based on polling. It’s based on the lines drawn on the map. I would argue that the winner-take-all system is what has led us down this path of polarized government and we need a new system. It’s a system that values voices and ensures that every vote matters. It’s fair representation – it’s proportional representation.
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RELATED | EARLY VOTING IN SOUTH CAROLINA
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Under the current maps, Representative James Clyburn apparently has to represent every Democrat in the state, but that’s not his job. Likewise, it’s not the job of the other six congressmen to represent the Republicans in district six. So then let’s imagine a system where more people are actually represented by their representatives. Some of our representatives do a good job of representing their entire district, but our system doesn’t incentivize that. It incentivizes representatives to represent their primary voters. For context, the 2024 primary had 14% voter turnout. More people need to vote in the primaries because, in our current system, a lot of time, that’s where the winner is chosen.
Proportional representation changes the incentives and makes it much more likely that everyone will be represented by someone who aligns with them. At its most basic, under single transferable vote or proportional ranked choice voting, if 60% of a district votes for a Republican and 40% for a Democrat in a three-member district, the district gets two Republicans and one Democrat. It also opens the door for candidates from small parties to win elections. If there’s a strong contingent of Libertarians in an area, they can elect someone to represent them. Under this system, every vote matters because it’s proportional.
The mad dash currently happening in the Statehouse isn’t about serving the voters. It’s about securing power before anyone notices the hand is quicker than the eye. We are throwing our election system into chaos, forcing secondary August primaries, and confusing the public, all to sustain a winner-take-all model that treats citizens like chess pieces.
But we don’t have to settle for predetermined outcomes that mimic autocracies. By embracing proportional representation, we can ensure that our maps reflect our actual communities, not our politicians’ anxieties. It is time to start fixing the system itself. If we want a government that is truly of, by, and for the people, we must stop drawing lines that divide us and start building a system where every single vote actually matters. To learn more, check out BetterBallotSC.org/fair-representation
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Nicole Sanchez is the President of Better Ballot SC. Better Ballot SC’s mission is to better our ballots by educating on and advocating for reforms that make our elections more fair and efficient.
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