Victory at the polls

February 4, 2010 by senatormcconnell

The goal of our voting laws should be twofold: enabling and encouraging as much voter participation as possible, while protecting the integrity of each vote.

Remarkably, the South Carolina Senate has overwhelming approved just such a law.

Last week, a long-held Republican goal of requiring photo identification at the polls met a strong filibuster by Democrats who said the measure could disenfranchise thousands of voters. Their claim was not mere partisanship; the S.C. Election Commission had estimated that 178,000 voters – 7 percent of the registered voters in the state – have no photo ID.

Let’s be clear on two things. First, the South has a long, dishonorable tradition of using its election laws to keep blacks from voting – poll taxes, reading tests, white primaries and general intimidation tactics have yet to fade from many residents’ memories. Thus, any proposed restriction at the poll should receive special scrutiny to avoid negative impact on these hard-won votes.

Second, voters should pay close attention to the difference between rule changes intended to improve the actual electoral process versus those meant solely to improve one party’s chances of winning. Politically ambitious lawmakers in both parties tend to conflate these two goals, an impulse that likely played a significant role in the Senate impasse.

So when the voter ID filibuster proved impossible to break, state Sens. Chip Campsen (R-Charleston) and Gerald Malloy (D-Darlington) did something nearly unimaginable amid our present nationwide partisan rancor: they sat down and wrote a truly bipartisan compromise. They made the ID cards free and instructed the S.C. Election Commission to begin an educational outreach to those 178,000 voters, giving them until 2012 to get a card. Finally, they added two weeks of open early voting to S.C. elections – supplementing absentee voting, which is only allowed under certain circumstances.

In other words, this compromise should be hailed as a true victory for members of both parties who have at heart the best interests of the voter – not of themselves.

The bipartisanship on display was all the more refreshing and surprising in light of the circumstances that preceded it. First, Republicans opened the session with a sudden week-long blitz to cram a symbolic rejection of Congress’ stalled health care down the Democrats’ throats, a move that seemed destined only to inflame partisan tempers. Then, at the outset of this voting bill, the Republican majority attempted to bypass the usual Senate procedure to get the bill to the floor over Democrats’ objections – hardly setting the stage for the compromise that emerged.

Next on the Senate’s agenda are two more reasonable goals, fixing the state’s broken Employment Security Commission and raising the state’s cigarette tax. If our senators can leave the partisanship that opened this session behind them and continue on the path they charted with the voting bill, South Carolina stands to make real legislative progress after all.

In memoriam

Amid the final debate on the voting bill, the legislative journal from Tuesday records that “the Senate stood adjourned out of respect to the memory of Mr. Nelson Jackson of Myrtle Beach,” the local businessman who built the landmark Ocean Lakes Campground and the Prestwick Country Club. Jackson’s life of industry, entrepreneurship and philanthropy made a lasting mark on the state, so his loss will be deeply felt on the Grand Strand and across South Carolina.

The Sun News

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