Voting group asks S. Carolina court to order redraw of US House districts that lean too Republican

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A group that works to protect and expand voting rights is asking South Carolina’s highest court to order lawmakers to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts because they lean too far Republican.

South Carolina’s congressional map was upheld two months ago in a 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said the state General Assembly did not use race to draw districts based on the 2020 Census.

Those new maps cemented Republicans 6-1 U.S. House advantage after Democrats surprisingly flipped a seat two years earlier.

The lawsuit by the League of Women Voters is using testimony and evidence from that case to argue that the U.S. House districts violate the South Carolina constitution’s requirement for free and open elections and that all people are protected equally under the law.

Gerrymandering districts so one party can get much more political power than it should based on voting patterns is cheating, said Allen Chaney, legal director for the South Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union which is handling the lawsuit.

“South Carolina voters deserve to vote with their neighbors, and to have their votes carry the same weight. This case is about restoring representative democracy in South Carolina, and I’m hopeful that the South Carolina Supreme Court will do just that,” Chaney said Monday in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

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