Upstate Redistricting Plans Coming Into Focus

THE TAKEAWAY: Political redistricting is underway. SC Senate and SC House maps are finished without significant changes to the Upstate, though thousands of voters may find their district lines moved a little bit. That may push people in a new Congressional, Senate, or House district.

After every Census, the Constitution requires a re-drawing of political lines to fairly represent population. Our leaders are currently re-drawing lines for Congressional districts, State Senate and State House districts, as well as all local offices: county councils, city councils, and school boards. Unlike we saw in rural parts of the state, the Upstate didn’t see any elimination of existing districts or new districts added to the map.

The State Senate and State House have finalized their districts and are now law (and pending court challenges). Many local bodies have started holding public hearings and workshops on initial maps, but the vast majority of local redistricting is not yet law. We are not expecting any disruptive changes to lines in the Upstate. However, thousands of people will find themselves with new districts before the primaries in June, so is important that voters check to see if they have new representatives before voting in the June primaries.

And, to answer the question we get frequently: Districts for US Senators Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham do not change since they are elected statewide. (And yes, we have received questions about politicians “gerrymandering” Scott and Graham’s “districts”.)

State Districts

For Upstate residents, here is the Senate map and here is the House map. Here are the significant changes to our delegations:

1. Sen. Rex Rice (R-Pickens) re-joins the Greenville Delegation, where he was a member when he was in the House of Representatives two decades ago.
2. Rep. Bill Whitmire (R-Westminster) gets a significant portion of northwestern Pickens County.
3. Rep. Neil Collins (R-Easley) and Rep. Jay West (R-Belton) join the Greenville delegation.
4. Rep. Steve Moss and Rep. Dennis Moss (both R-Cherokee County) will join the Spartanburg delegation.
5. Rep. Craig Gagnon (R-Abbeville) joins the Laurens delegation.
6. Chairwoman Rita Allison (R-Lyman) moves out of the Greenville delegation.

Here are details of the Senate map: https://scsenate.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=ac95d791bda24157be032107a8fa1d76

Here are the details of the House map: https://redistricting.schouse.gov/docs/housepassed/FloorPassedStatewideMap.pdf

Congressional Maps

The Congressional maps are a completely different story. There is a tremendous controversy surrounding the Congressional maps, mostly over the lines for the First, Second, and Sixth Districts (in the Charleston and Columbia areas).  The majority of our readers will not see major major changes to the Third (Congressman Duncan), Fourth (Congressman Timmons), and Fifth (Congressman Norman) Districts. The Fourth District needed to lose thousands of people to stay within population guidelines, so:

• areas around Chesnee and Boiling Springs are set to move to the Fifth District, and
• the city of Fountain Inn moves entirely to the Third District, as well as more areas immediately around Simpsonville.

The Senate and House have competing Congressional District proposals, and leaders say they will quickly resolve the differences this month. A quick turnaround is critical since filing for the new offices begins in mid-March. You can see the Senate proposals here and the House proposals here.

We’ve reached out to the Election Commission to find out when individual voters may check their voter registration to see if they moved districts. A spokesman for the commission did not respond before we posted this. We will let our members know as soon as we get a confirmation.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at [email protected].