South Carolina House passes scaled-back bill standardizing election practices

(The Center Square) – A slimmed-down version of a House bill that would give the South Carolina State Election Commission (SEC) authority to standardize election practices in the state’s counties is headed for the Senate.

House Bill 3444, sponsored by House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, and 27 co-sponsors, passed a second reading Wednesday, 84-36, in a mostly-partisan vote. The measure had a procedural third reading Thursday and was sent to the Senate.

House lawmakers agreed to remove a provision that would have added four members appointed by the General Assembly to the SEC. Right now, all five members of the commission are appointed by the governor, with one member required to be from the minority party.

During November’s election, described by the SEC as “one of the smoothest and most efficient general elections in history,” there were variations in how counties implemented state election laws, most notably in how witness signatures on absentee ballots were verified.

Lucas said the variations are akin to “cracks” in county election practices and state law.

“If there are cracks, somebody’s got to fill them in,” Lucas said. “We can’t fill them in 46 ways.”

“We can’t have Florence County do it different than Darlington County on a crucial issue,” said Rep. Jay Jordan, R-Florence. “The determining opinion on that would be the State Election Commission absent of state law. It adds that statewide uniformity.

“We’re not taking away the sincere need for the county election commissions on how they operate and exist,” he said.

Many Democrats argued the bill could lead to that by concentrating authority under a politically appointed commission instead of elected county elections supervisors and stripping away local flexibility.

“That really bothers me because it appears that whatever the State Election Commission wants is what the locals have to go along with,” said Rep. Patricia Moore Henegan, D-Bennettsville. “I see that as very troubling to me.”

Rep. Michael Rivers, D-St. Helena Island, said he feared the measure is just the beginning of ensuing Republican bills seeking to restrict absentee voting in the state because, otherwise, it serves little purpose.

“It seems that we are looking for a problem trying to solve rather than solving a problem that we have identified,” he said.

Rep. Ivory Thigpen, D-Columbia, said the bill is better without the provision to expand the SEC to nine members but said the composition of the commission is worthy of further review.

“We can’t let it be a partisan issue, and we can’t let it be a power struggle. We have to make it about impartiality and neutrality as much as possible,” he said.

The proposal has the endorsement of Gov. Henry McMaster. In a letter sent Monday to legislators in both chambers of the General Assembly, McMaster said after the 2020 election revealed “a hodgepodge of different and inconsistent processes,” elections laws need to be standardized statewide.

“This critical legislation will enhance accountability at the State Election Commission and safeguard the voting process against the threat of fraud, which if left unchecked could do permanent damage to our republican form of government,” he wrote.

Removing the provision to add four members appointed by lawmakers to the SEC likely will help the bill’s prospects in the Senate.

HB 3444’s Senate companion, Senate Bill 499, filed by Sen. George Campsen, R-CHarleston, and four co-sponsors, would require Senate confirmation of the governor’s appointees to the SEC, but does not accord the commission more authority over county elections offices.

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