Letter: Help correct SC gerrymandering

I live on St. Helena Island but could not vote for the school board member elected last week to represent the island. Also, my state representative lives in Charleston, and my U.S. House member lives in Mount Pleasant. Why? Gerrymandering.

This is the system of drawing voting district lines without regard to precinct or county lines, with the intent of confining minority voters (who are mostly Democrats) to only a few voting districts. In South Carolina, this means that although the electorate is 45 percent Democratic and 55 percent Republican, only one of our seven representatives in Washington is a Democrat.

Clearly, this is not representative government. This system discourages good candidates from running for office and assures that those who hold office will be re-elected … unless they are “primaried out” by their own party. In 2016, 435 U.S. House seats were up for re-election; only 17 new members were elected.

In South Carolina, gerrymandering also delivered the political power to the cities: Charleston, Columbia, Greenville.

In addition, all statewide officers and a large majority in both houses of the legislature are Republicans, so there is very little discussion of bills or issues.

A bill before the legislature, S.341, would have the Senate Judiciary Committee appoint a nonpartisan commission to propose more equitable and logical voting districts. This new plan would go to the voters as a referendum in 2018. Tell your state representatives to vote “yes.” Contact information is in the phone book and online.

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 8:07 PM with the headline "Letter: Help correct SC gerrymandering."